Construction delays in Hong Kong civil engineering projects

Construction delays are common in civil engineering projects in Hong Kong, inevitably resulting in contractual claims and increased project cost. This study was aimed, first, at gathering the perceptions of civil construction practitioners on how significant are the causes of delay; and, second, investigating whether the suggestions as stated in the report of the Construction Industry Review Committee (the Committee comprises members with good standing and knowledge in the construction and related fields as well as those from other professions who are responsible for examining the current state of the construction industry in terms of its output quantity, the quality of work, its environmental friendliness, site safety, its workforce and the system of supervision) are applicable to and effective at mitigating the corresponding delays with reference to a ranking order established using the mean score method. The extent of the differences in perception among the different respondent groups on these two issues was also examined using the rank agreement factor (RAF), percentage agreement (PA), and percentage disagreement (PD). The differences in the perceptions of the respondents on the significance of delays and the actual causes of delays for the six projects studied were also examined. The results of the study showed that the respondents tended to admit their own faults as shown in the top ten significant causes of delay. A strong consensus was found between the client and consultant groups on the significance of the various causes of delay (PA=74%) and the effectiveness of mitigation measures (PA=67%) compared with the other pairs of groups. The consultant and contractor groups held extremely different perceptions regarding the significance of various delay causes (RAF=4.9 and PD=32%) and the effectiveness of corresponding mitigation measures (RAF=6.2 and PD=47%). It is believed that the findings can provide much more insight for the construction practitioners as well as the researchers and thus help to improve the productivity and overall performance of civil construction projects in Hong Kong.