English abstract
Road construction projects in urban areas like Muscat have substantial amount of risk and
have a certain number of uncertainties, which cause delays in the implementation of
projects. These delays have negative economic consequences and can create damages and
a bad image for all parties involved in the project. Delays in road construction projects
have several causes associated with the owner, consultant, contractors and other agencies.
There are few studies of road construction delay factors identification in Oman and the
available studies were conducted mainly using published global literature and distributed
questionnaire survey. Therefore, this study explores and identify the causes of delays of
road construction projects in Oman with specific references to the public road projects in
Muscat Governorate conducted by Muscat Municipality (MM).
The methodology adopted in this research for assessing the factors that have caused delays
in road construction projects in MM are primarily, a review of international publication
for gathering information on the trending factors that cause delays in the design and
construction of projects including road projects across the world. Secondly, collection of
data from the road projects files of the respective completed road projects of MM. The
collected data were discussed with the road experts and engineers of Muscat Municipality
to understand better the history and circumstances behind the causes of delays in road
projects.
The study found that during the period from 2010 to 2018, 84 projects related to road
construction were awarded, out of which 57 projects were completed beyond the specified
completion time. In other words, 67.9% of awarded road projects in 2010 - 2018 exceeded
their scheduled completion time, and there was no cost overrun. The findings revealed
that there is a list of 16 prominent delay factors in the construction of road projects in the
Muscat Governorate. Further analysis was done to define the delay causes and their
importance according to the project types and project delivery methods. Additionally, the
entities involved in the road construction projects are classified into three main categories,
the owner, the contractor and the other agencies. Furthermore, the 16 delay factors are
categorized into five main categories, utilities delays, poor site management, design
changes, change s in the scope of work and other causes. The results revealed that even if
the factor is frequently happening, its impact might not be significant on the completion
period. In addition, delay factors may lead to cost overrun in the construction of road
projects. Additionally, the other agencies and the utilities related delay causes are found
to be the dominant reasons for the delay in the construction schedule of road projects. In
conclusion, some mitigation measures are recommended to reduce the delay causes and
their impact, and help complete road projects within the scheduled time and budget.
