Critical Factors and Mitigating Measures of Construction Delays of Pakistani Building Construction Projects

 The construction industry is a significant contributor to a country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, construction projects often face many issues especially delay. It is a key contributor to project failure, leading to cost overruns and a decline in quality standards. This study aims to identify the critical factors of delay in building construction projects in Pakistan, and its controlling measures of the critical delay factors. A literature review identified 48 common factors of delay in the construction industry worldwide. Based on a structured questionnaire and the average index method, 11 critical factors of delays in building construction projects in Pakistan were identified. Furthermore, a semi-structured questionnaire was used to determine 44 possible mitigation measures which were extracted from literature review with the 11 critical delay factors.  The results of this study will be useful for stakeholders in building construction projects in Pakistan. By incorporating the recommended mitigation measures, they can identify and control the most critical factors that can cause delays in building construction projects. This study contributes to the existing literature by providing a better understanding of the factors causing delays in building construction projects in Pakistan and proposing effective measures to mitigate these factors.

Preliminary Study on Causative Factors Leading to Construction Cost Overrun

 Cost is the fundamental component for any construction project. However, cost overrun is observed as one of the most frequently occurring issues in construction projects worldwide and need to be studied more to alleviate this issue in the future. This trend is more severe in developing countries where these overruns sometimes exceeds 100% of the anticipated cost of the project.   Like other countries, construction industry in Malaysia is also facing a lot of challenges such as the delay to complete the project in time, the expenditure exceeding the budget, the building defects and over dependent of foreign workers. The ultimate effects of project delay also results in exceeding cost. This leads to serious need of addressing the critical issue of construction cost overrun. To avoid construction cost overrun, very first and most important step is to identify and understand the causes and factors responsible for that. Hence, this paper is aimed to identify various factors responsible for construction cost overrun. Through a comprehensive study of literature review, common factors causing cost overrun resulting in identification of 78 factors were mapped in frequency table. A questionnaire survey and interviews were carried out amongst selected experienced personnel for expert opinion to identify the significant factors causing cost overrun in Malaysia. Five respondents were selected from each of the respondents groups including client, consultant and contractor. The questionnaire responses were analyzed by average index method, which resulted in identification of 59 common factors causing construction cost overrun in Malaysia. Results show that poor design & delays in Design, unrealistic contract duration & requirements imposed, lack of experience, late delivery of materials & equipment, relationship between management & labour, delay preparation & approval of drawings, inadequate planning & scheduling, poor site management & supervision and mistakes during construction were most common and significant factors causing cost overrun in Malaysian construction industry as perceived by experts.&nbsp

Does Gender Differences Exist in Online Newspaper Consumption among Pakistani Youth?

It is no doubt that the popularity of ICTs in developing countries has increased the use of internet-related social networking sites along with news information consumption, production, and news distribution. As such, there has been a huge shift in the trend of news consumption from conventional media to an online newspaper. It has also been tocied that male and female youth are equally inclined to use internet for different reasons. Thus, in recent times scholars have started inspecting online newspaper consumption-related behavior, with an emphasis on young boys and girls in a way this group is one that can last longer. However, very few studies have paid attention to gender differences in motivating factors for online newspaper consumption in Pakistan. To address this gap, by using a cross-sectional design, a survey was conducted on university students from three public universities of Pakistan because university students are tech-savvy and mostly internet users. These three universities are representative of rural and urban population. Questionnaires were used to collect data which was analyzed using Partial Least Squares-Multi Group Analysis. Hypothesized results discovered that in terms of online newspaper consumption, there was no gender differences found in online newspaper consumption among Pakistani youth

Identifying causes of construction waste - case of central region of Peninsular Malaysia

Construction waste becomes a global issue facing by practitioners and researchers around the world. Waste can affects success of construction project significantly. More specifically, it has major impact on construction cost, construction time, productivity and sustainability aspects. This paper aims to identify various factors causing construction waste in Malaysia. Study was carried out through structured questionnaire focusing three major parties (i.e. clients, consultants and contractors) involved in construction project. Data was analyzed with Statistical Software Package SPSS. Reliability of data was found as 0.917 which showed that data collected was highly reliable. The calculation of Mean Rank of the construction waste causes found that the 5 key causes are Poor site management and supervision, Lack of experience, inadequate planning and scheduling, Mistakes and errors in design and finally Mistakes during construction. Spearman correlation analysis showed that Mistakes during construction was highly correlated with Rework (with 0.829 correlation value) and Slow information flow between parties (with a value of 0.60) and vice versa. Through identifying the causes and its correlation of the construction waste it gives better understanding to the construction community for future construction projects which benefit not only in term of economy but also the environment

Assessing the Effects of Construction Delays on MARA Large Projects

Construction industry in Malaysia is facing a serious issue of construction delay causing a significant amount of time over run and cost over run. Various studies have addressed the issue of construction delay, however, most of studies focused on identifying causes of delay. Less attention has been paid of assessing effects of construction delay. Hence this study is aimed to assess effects of construction delay on MARA large projects. Investigation approach for study includes the site study of 30 MARA  large projects selected from various areas of Malaysia and structured questionnaire survey among client, consultant and contractor personnel’s. It is important to note that 90% of MARA projects are experiencing time overrun. Data was analyzed with statistical analysis  to calculate rank of the effects of delays and correlation with spearman formula to identify the interrelationship between attributes of effects. Results showed that time over-run and cost over-run are most significant effects of delay on MARA construction projects. Time over-run has high degree of correlation with cost over-run and moderate degree of correlation with disputes

Factors Affecting Construction Cost in Mara Large Construction Project: Perspective of Project Management Consultant

Project cost is one of the most important criteria of success of project and is of high concern to those who are involved in the construction industry. However, studies show that rarely projects are complete within stipulated budget. This study is focusing on identification of significant causes affecting construction cost in MARA large projects. This paper presents the results of a questionnaire survey conducted among the personnel of Project Management Consultant (PMC). Data was analyzed with statistical tools to determine the rank of factors affecting construction cost. It is concluded that cash flow and financial difficulties faced by contractors, contractor's poor site management and supervision, inadequate contractor experience, shortage of site workers, incorrect planning and scheduling by contractors are most severe factors while changes in scope of project and frequent design changes are least affecting factors on construction cost. Spearman correlation analysis showed that incorrect planning and scheduling by contractor has strong positive relationship with contractor’s poor site management and supervision, inadequate experience of contractors has strong positive relationship with incorrect planning and scheduling; and contractor’s poor site management and supervision, changes in scope of project has strong positive relationship with frequent design changes; and vice versa

Identifying Causes of Construction Waste – Case of Central Region of Peninsula Malaysia

Construction waste becomes a global issue facing by practitioners and researchers around the world. Waste can affects success of construction project significantly. More specifically, it has major impact on construction cost, construction time, productivity and sustainability aspects. This paper aims to identify various factors causing construction waste in Malaysia. Study was carried out through structured questionnaire focusing three major parties (i.e. clients, consultants and contractors) involved in construction project. Data was analyzed with Statistical Software Package SPSS. Reliability of data was found as 0.917 which showed that data collected was highly reliable. The calculation of Mean Rank of the construction waste causes found that the 5 key causes are Poor site management and supervision, Lack of experience, inadequate planning and scheduling, Mistakes and errors in design and finally Mistakes during construction. Spearman correlation analysis showed that Mistakes during construction was highly correlated with Rework (with 0.829 correlation value) and Slow information flow between parties (with a value of 0.60) and vice versa. Through identifying the causes and its correlation of the construction waste it gives better understanding to the construction community for future construction projects which benefit not only in term of economy but also the environment

Web-based Risk Assessment Technique for Time and Cost Overrun (WRATTCO) – A Framework

AbstractControlling time and cost overrun of construction projects is very crucial in achieving successful completion of any projects. Unfortunately, construction industry today is facing a major risk in achieving completion of project within estimated time and cost. This risk is caused by various factors. Aiming to treat this problem, this study presents a framework for web-based expert and decision support system in order to assess the risk level of causative factors of time and cost overrun on project success throughout the lifecycle of construction process. It will be integrated with project schedule to estimate the consequences of these factors and forecast the loss of time and cost if the risk factors are not controlled. This will be achieving by implanting the technique of neural network. The program will also be able to suggest the corrective actions in order to control the identified risk factors. Finally, various reports can be generated in presenting the associated problems of the factors and their relative impact of project performance

Simultaneous Determination of Two Isomers of Asarone in Piper sarmentosum Roxburgh (Piperaceae) Extracts using Different Chromatographic Columns

Purpose: To develop a rapid and reliable reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography (RPHPLC) method to quantify the two isomers of asarones in P. sarmentosum extracts using two different columns under similar analytical conditions.Methods: Two isomers, α- and β-asarone, were analyzed using two types of C 18 columns with 0.1 % orthophosphoric acid: acetonitrile: methanol (50: 40: 10) as mobile phase. The developed method was applied to determine the contents of α- and β-asarone in extracts of different parts of P. sarmentosum.Results: Column A retention times for the elution of α- and β-asarone were 11.890 ± 0.008 and 10.80 ± 0.004 min, respectively, and were significantly shorter than those of column B (15.110 ± 0.024 and 13.290 ± 0.018, respectively, p < 0.001). Column B showed better resolution (1.82 ± 0.025 of the isomers than column A (1.10 ± 0.01, p < 0.001). Both columns showed comparable sensitivity, precision and selectivity of the compounds investigated. α-Asarone level was in the range 0.36 - 5.14 % in ethanol and 50 % ethanol extracts, but absent in all water extracts. β-Asarone occurred in the range of 0.01 - 0.15 % in ethanol and 50 % ethanol extracts but was absent in all water extracts of P. sarmentosum.Conclusion: The results indicate that the developed method is a suitable quality assurance method for determining α- and β-asarone isomers in herbal extracts and food preparations.Keywords: α- Asarone, Isomers, Piper sarmentosum, Herbal extracts, Retention tim