An Appraisal Of The Impact Of Delay In Project Delivery In Construction Industry

1.1 Background of the study

It is believed that one of the prevailing problems of construction industry in Nigeria is the impact of delays in project delivery. It is very important for both public and private projects to be completed on time and within budgets. Normally, achieving the projects within predetermined time, budget and quality is the basic purpose of construction project control. Construction delays is simply the time during which some part of the construction project has been extended beyond what was originally planned due to unanticipated circumstances.

Project success is basically to gain the project objectives that are classically defined by the need to complete a project on time, within the budget and with appropriate quality. Hence any disruptions to the project objectives will certainly contribute to project delays with the specified adverse effect on project objectives. Delays can give rise to disruption of work and loss of productivity, late completion of project, increase time related costs, third party claims, abandonment or determination of contract. Delays are costly and often result in disputes and claims. Furthermore, delays effects the feasibility for project owner and retard the development in construction industry Before determining the effect of delay on project, one must determine whether the delay is critical. Additionally, all delays are either excusable or non-excusable. Both excusable and non-excusable can be defined as either concurrent or non-concurrent. Delays can be further broken down into compensable or non-compensable delays. Unfortunately, many construction projects cannot be delivered within specified time and budget. Many project shows massive cost and time overruns, in some cases client has to increase project time and cost. In an attempt to solve these problems, there are various strategies applied which will be discuss at the course of this presentation.

Delays are perhaps the most common form of construction claims or even disputes. The problem is that, the parties involved in the process could hardly identify the reason and responsibility of each one in the specific task. Delays and claims resulted from works which are not carried-out precisely as the contract required. Accordingly, avoiding delays is a crucial concerned not only with good practice during the planning and execution of the works but also with the proper operation of the contract machinery.

This project seeks to identify the impact of delays on project delivery in Nigeria construction industry. Appropriate strategies to control delays and develop a guide him of information management for prevention and control are also covered in this work.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Project delays have been one of the most prevailing problems in construction projects in Cross River State. This delays has it impact on project delivery which findings shows that cost overrun, time overrun and project abandonment is the effect experience by delay in construction project in Cross River State.

Improper planning, poor contract management, slow decision making, design errors and cash flow problems were the major causes of delays in most of the project.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objective of the study is to investigate the effects of delay on construction delivery in Nigeria. But for the successful completion of the study, the researcher intends to achieve the following objectives;

i) To ascertain the effects of delay on construction delivery in Nigeria

ii) To investigate the impact of delay in construction on the life span of the project

iii) To ascertain the causes of delay in construction project delay in Nigeria

iv) To ascertain the relationship between delay in project delivery and project abandonment.