Published on 30th January 2023
Construction project delays disrupt the construction schedule and impact project completion. We can differentiate these delays based on category and the agent (contractor, owner, or an external factor) responsible for a delay event.
Furthermore, top causes of construction project delays include budget inaccuracies, labor shortages, lack of good communication, poor work scheduling, project approval delays, project financing challenges, and raw material shortage.
How can you handle project delays in construction and ensure your project team stays on top of key updates in the construction process? Read this post to learn more.
Additional compensation. Additional cost. Additional time.
The above three symbolize the impact of construction project delays caused by contractors, owners, or external factors.
Construction delays broadly fall under the following categories:
All compensable delays fall under excusable delays and entitle a contractor to time extension and cost compensation.
On the other hand, a non-compensable delay makes a contractor solely at fault for a delay event. Furthermore, non-compensable delays fall under critical, non-critical, excusable, or non-excusable categories.
A concurrent delay occurs in a situation where one delay event affects multiple activities simultaneously/independently. However, not all such events entitle a contractor to extensions of time and cost claims.
While a critical delay is the cause of extended project duration, a non-critical delay affects a project’s cost estimates and scheduled completion.
Examples of critical delay include:
An excusable delay is caused due to an activity getting delayed beyond a contractor’s control. In this case, the contractor is entitled to compensation or extension of time or both, under the terms and conditions of the construction contract.
Causes of an excusable delay include:
Non-excusable delays arise when a contractor is fully responsible for critical delays and, thereby, extending project duration. In this case, the contractor has to bear the risk of cost consequences.
Causes of a non-excusable delay include:
Let us look at some examples of construction delays caused by contractors, owners, and external factors (listed alphabetically).
|
Delays caused by contractors |
Delays caused by owners |
Delays caused by external factors |
|
Contractors’ financial difficulties |
Change orders |
Acts of God |
|
Contractors’ inadequate site inspection |
Deficiencies in coordination |
Civil disturbances |
|
Delays in subcontractors’ work |
Delays in design information |
Disputes/conflicts |
|
Equipment allocation problems |
Design quality/incomplete drawings |
Economic conditions |
|
Inadequate contractor experience |
Funding |
Government regulations |
|
Labor |
Inappropriate overall organizational structure |
Inclement weather |
|
Materials management problems |
Lack of communication |
Increase in material cost |
|
Planning and scheduling problems |
Long waiting time for approval |
Price fluctuations |
|
Productivity/work-rate |
Slow decision-making |
Shortage of construction materials |
|
Site management and supervisions |
Slow information flow |
Slow permits by agencies |
|
Slow mobilization |
Unrealistic contract durations |
Unforeseen site conditions |
Source: Hendrik Prinsloo, PhD
There is no single delay factor responsible for a construction project going over budget, past the due date, or below contract specifications.
The International Journal of Education and Research quotes “asymmetric information, bid gaming, change order artistry, and post-contractual market power as the fundamental reasons for construction delays,” according to the economic historian Robert E. Wright.
Here are the top reasons for construction project delays (listed alphabetically):
Budget conflicts and inaccuracies constitute the main cause of project delays, with inaccurate budgets closely tied to inaccurate timelines.
Furthermore, mismanaged budget planning and underestimated budgets can defeat a project even before the construction takeoff.
Disparate systems between construction companies and different departments lead to project inefficiencies, which inhibit project completion.
For example, disparity arises due to one department using archaic spreadsheets and the other using an in-house or outdated system.
Inaccurate time estimates can cripple a construction project timeline and impact successful project execution.
Large-scale labor shortage is a result of various factors, such as older construction workers reaching retirement age or younger ones not taking up a career in construction.
A lack of communication or miscommunication related to important updates, such as change orders, job costs, and redesigns, can delay a project significantly and lead to project conflicts.
For instance, delay in obtaining construction drawings like floor plans from the designer inevitably halts construction progress.
Construction teams are consistently plagued with crew-scheduling issues.
For example, inaccurate tracking of dependent tasks and a lack of visibility into worker location impede the progress of a construction project.
Slow response to project changes causes unnecessary delays.
Streamlining the workflow process is essential to keeping up with the often-rapid pace of construction projects and managing events like change orders, while minimizing any major financial impact.
As construction loans are considered high-risk, the loan process takes a long time, including the preparation and organization of financial documents.
For instance, a commercial construction project loan pays for the upfront project costs, including labor, land development, and materials.
Construction suppliers find it difficult to fulfill orders when there is a shortage of raw materials due to a volatile global supply chain.
As a result, construction delays arise that affect the project completion date.
If a contractor is non-compliant with a sub-contractor’s bonding, licensing, or other contractual obligation, it makes a project vulnerable to legal conflicts or challenges and increases project risks.
Moreover, being unaware of a larger project’s timeline or spreading too thin causes a progressive delay in the project schedule.
Furthermore, a general contractor needs to stay on top of compliance with entities like EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), OFCCP (Office of Federal Contract Compliance), and OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health administration) to avoid fines and construction delays.
Other significant causes of construction project delays include:
Under project management processes, project monitoring and control include identification and study of delays.
Although weather-induced delays are beyond our control, it is possible to avoid most construction project delays.
Generally, we can minimize delays by adopting the following:
Compared to spreadsheets or quickly assembled in-house solutions, construction management solutions are designed to support construction teams in managing various project delays, such as (listed alphabetically):
Robust project management software provides access to calendars and makes it easier to automate compliance-related tasks, such as:
Construction project management software’s robust file-sharing features aid in storing and sharing documents with sensitive accounting and bank information.
Additionally, project management software can handle collaboration and file sharing for PDFs, CAD, DWG, and RVT files to register real-time document changes and speed up document access on mobile devices.
Using cloud-based construction software helps complete construction deliverables on time and within budget by providing crucial insights into project progress, worker status visibility, and more.
Moreover, investing in a machine learning program is a great way to use existing data to spot trends and make accurate predictions.
Furthermore, operating in the cloud allows for complete, secure data backups for uninterrupted business functioning.
Construction project management solutions help project managers chart project paths and create timelines from customizable templates or copy timelines from previous projects.
Consequently, construction project teams can make educated decisions based on an objective, realistic look at project history.
For example, Microsoft Project assists a project management professional in developing a plan, allocating resources, tracking progress, managing the budget, and analyzing workloads.
Project management software aids in tracking prices of materials against the project budget as well as keeping an eye on available and used resources.
Construction firms can prevent avoidable cost overruns with purpose-built construction project management solutions.
Communication and collaboration audit trails help provide accurate information and resolve issues before they turn into project problems.
A construction management solution enables organizations to schedule automatic notifications for task completion, track dependent tasks, and stay on the critical path so that tasks are completed by a specific date or in a particular order.
In addition, automatically updating dependent tasks removes much of the manual component and effectively minimizes delays.
Construction delay analysis is a vital component of construction project management. The delay analysis method consists of the following steps:
The first step involves identifying delay causes like equipment failures and issues with the project design.
Such identification is necessary to collect as much information as possible on daily reports, project schedules, and documentation of any changes or disruptions to the project.
This step involves assessing the impact of delays on the project budget, quality, and schedule.
Furthermore, the assessment includes the impact on the project stakeholders, including the contractor, owner, and subcontractors.
A construction company can develop mitigation strategies based on sound data and analysis when the analysis is conducted in an objective and unbiased manner.
Mitigation strategies include adjusting the budget, implementing a new project schedule, or implementing new processes or procedures to improve team communication and collaboration.
A comprehensive, objective, and timely delay analysis enables construction companies to minimize the impact of delays on projects and ensures project completion on time and within budget.
Contractors use forensic delay analysis to determine the impact of the project schedule by one or more events as well as the causes responsible for the events.
In addition, the delay analysis report identifies specific activities, which result in schedule delay.
Here are the five most commonly used methods for performing schedule delay analyses:
Impacted as-planned: In this method, impact activities are inserted into the original baseline (as-planned) schedule to create a projected schedule of events that includes the delays and the original plan.
Collapsed as-built (“but-for”): This method analyzes the as-built schedule and determines what the completion date would have been “but-for” identified impacts.
As-planned vs. As-built: A sequential comparison between individual planned and actual activities identifies the causes of variances to quantify associated delay.
Time impact analysis (TIA): This is a modeled approach that quantifies each impact event based on the most recently accepted schedule update before and after inserting a delay event.
Windows analysis: This method divides the entire project duration into shorter analysis periods or windows and quantifies delay within each period.
A construction project delay not only causes project mistakes but also results in disruption of the entire project schedule.
Costly delays are detrimental to project progress. However, deploying construction project management software improves efficiency and mitigates the effects of construction project delays.
Construction project delays are ubiquitous in the construction industry. However, you can identify and mitigate project delays to keep your construction projects on track.
