English Abstract
Abstract :
Bahrain’s construction industry is one of the most significant sectors contributing
to GDP. The construction of private housing projects contributes to this economy in a way that is no less important than the rest of the contributions in this sector.
Due to various factors, delay in completing these projects is not an exception. The only way to
prevent these delay causes is to identify the factors and their sources. The main objective
of this study is to identify the main cause factors that result in the delay of the construction of private housing projects in Bahrain, to study the effects of the delay, and to propose methods that would help reduce the delay's impact. A review of the literature, two case studies, confirming the factors with eight experts in the field, and a questionnaire survey served as the basis for this study. The total population found was 604, This was followed by questionnaires distributed to a representative sample of 38
consultants, 54 contractors, and 82 clients. The data was collected from the project's main stakeholders, such as the client, the consultant, and the contractor.
Fifty factors were identified as the causes of the project delays and categorized into seven major
related groups. In addition, six significant effects of that delay were identified, and 20 methods to reduce the impact were proposed. SPSS was used to analyze and examine the collected data. According to the obtained results, the top ten causes of delays in the construction of private housing projects as per the participants’ perspective were as follows: a shortage of labourers, changes in the project’s scope, low budget and high expectations, wrong time estimation, labourers’ low productivity, unskilled labourers,
wrong cost estimation, inflation of the material’s price, slow decision making and cash flow shortage. In addition, the impacts of the delays were cost overrun, abandonment, time overturn, dispute, litigation, and arbitration.
The participants believed that selecting the right consultants and contractors who have sufficient expertise, ensuring an adequate and available source of finance, and assigning an expert person for the project are the most effective methods to reduce the impact of project delays and will reflect in a
significant way on the time, cost, quality, and scope of the project if applied.
