A study of root causes of delays in the public-sector construction projects in Kuwait

Al-Adwani, MM; Mollasalehi, S; Fleming, AJ

Abstract

After the Kuwait Government launched the 2035 vision of Kuwait, development of the construction industry became one of the priority themes of the country. However, the construction industry faces many problems such as delays, defects, cost overruns and poor productivity and efficiency. Nevertheless, delays in projects are one of the most significant issues in this industry globally and in particular, in Kuwait. To solve this problem, it is important to understand the main root causes of delays by examining and identifying the causes. This paper aims to examine the key root causes of delays in public construction projects in Kuwait. This study provides a comprehensive insight into the issues causing delays in construction projects in Kuwait from reviewing the literature and by reviewing the results of a distributed online questionnaire. This online survey targets the experts in the AEC industry who are involved in these governmental projects from different public construction authorities in Kuwait. These government agencies are the Ministry of Public Works (MPW) and the Public Authority of Housing Welfare (PAHW) which are responsible for the major public facilities projects and residential projects in Kuwait. The findings of this study provide an in-depth understanding of this problem and possible solutions will be recommended. The survey results proved that group 1 which is the client-related factors group has the most significant factors for the delays in these construction projects in Kuwait. Therefore, the client in these projects was the main responsible part of these delays. However, one of the reasons of delays in public-sector construction projects is the government did not apply new construction management methods for this sector. Yet, lack of collaboration and coordination between stakeholders, traditional procurement system, and long approval processes are the main reason behind this issue.

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: International Conference on Construction Futures ICCF
• Start Date: Dec 19, 2018
• End Date: Dec 20, 2018
• Acceptance Date: Oct 19, 2018
• Publication Date: Dec 20, 2018
• Deposit Date: Mar 28, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 23, 2019
• Publisher URL: https://www.wlv.ac.uk/about-us/our-schools-and-institutes/faculty-of-science-and-engineering/school-of-architecture-and-built-environment/iccf/
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference