Clients delay in infrastructure projects : a case of road development authority (RDA)

Abstract

The client delay in construction of infrastructure projects is a very common issue in Road Development Authority (RDA) in Sri Lanka. For client delays, the contractor is entitled for extension of time (EOT) beyond the intended completion date of the project which results price escalation of materials and resources and claims for idling of resources / overheads to the contractor. This study was carried out to analyze client delays in RDA road, bridge and drain projects. First, 80 number of client delay factors were summarized from widespread literature review and the amount of delay of each of these factors in 28 RDA projects were recorded by extension of time (EOT) reports. Then the risk index (RI) was analyzed to identify the significant client delay factors and Time Performance Index (TPI) was statically analyzed using SPSS 16.0 version to quantify the amount of significant client delay in RDA projects. It was found that, the ratio of actual contract duration to planned contract duration with respect to the client delay is more than 210% at 95% significance level. Further, there are 20 significant client delay factors in RDA projects. The top 10 client delay factors are very significant and represent 95% of the total client delay. Eight factors of these 10 very significant factors are human related factors that can be reduced and controlled by proper planning and designing of projects. The top five client delay factors are Variation order, Land acquisition, Inclement weather, Payment delay and Shifting of existing services.