Causes of delay in large construction project in Nigeria construction industry.

Abstract

Many projects in Nigeria construction industry experience extensive delays thereby exceeding the project duration date which often lead to costly disputes and claims between parties. Therefore, this research presents the causes of construction delays, and the factors contributing to construction delays. The state of the art technology used in addressing the issue of delay was discussed. Based on the literature the theoretical frame work was developed. Consequently, questionnaire survey were conducted among 93 major project stakeholders in the Nigeria construction industry which includes the contractors, consultants and clients. Relative important index of each factors were calculated and ranked, and according to the highest ranking of these factors the top important causes of construction delay influencing the Nigeria construction industry were determined. Besides, the most important technology was also determined. Kruskal Wallis test was carried out to determine the significant difference between the factors of delay on causes of construction delay.
The result of the survey revealed that financial predicament, lack of consultant site staff, poor skills and inexperience of labour are the most important factors contributing to construction delay in the Nigeria construction industry. The result further revealed that labour input tracking model is the most important state of the art technology. Subsequently, the findings in this research will contribute in improving performance in the Nigeria construction industry in terms of time and cost overrun. Further research is needed to investigate the model use in addressing delay issues in the Nigeria construction industry.