Disputes arising from variations in road construction projects in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Sri Lanka is rapidly developing from the infrastructure sector with the emergence of huge and highly costly road networks and highway projects. This complexity gives rise mostly to unwanted situation as variations together with their attached effects, and greater likelihood that they become time consuming and costly than as-planned projects. Therefore, dispute arises naturally from the construction process largely where players involved must coordinate their work in all stages. On the other hand, though much literature had developed on the broad view on variations and disputes, there is no literature which deeply addresses disputes arising from the variations within the Sri Lankan road projects by analyzing the cases. Therefore, this research aims to fill the gap of disputes arising from variations in road projects in Sri Lanka and to propose probable attributes towards managing of such disputes. The research aim was approached through case studies based on three road projects. During the data collection, semi-structured interviews were conducted with top level professionals of all three projects who had participated in the dispute procedures adopted in the Contract. Thereafter, the gathered data was analyzed using content analysis and mapping techniques (with NVivo 2011). Findings deeply revealed that the existing disputes arise from the variations in Sri Lankan road projects. Causes of variations, contractual provisions for the variations and effects and the disputes arising from such variations in existing practice are discussed. Finally suggest probable measures to manage such disputes by developing a frame work.