Delay in the completion of projects has become an endemic feature
of the construction industry as highlighted consistently over the
years in various studies (Harris and Scott 2001; Scott and Harris
2004; Arditi and Pattanakitchamroon 2006). The traditional approach
to dealing with the risk of delays involves making provisions
in construction contracts as to how delay issues are to be
resolved amicably among contracting parties. Such provisions enable
the contractor to recover from the employer, in the event of
delays arising from events over which the latter is responsible,
an extension of time and/or compensation for the resulting additional
time and cost expended. Conversely, there are also liquidated
or actual damages provisions by which contractors are to compensate
employers in the event of delays from events over which the
former bears the risks involved.Weather a delay qualifies as a basis
for an extension of time, compensation, or liquidated damages is a
matter of risk allocation between the contractor and the employer as
defined in the contract (Zack 1995; Pickavance 2010).
In spite of the contractual provisions for dealing with delays,
contracting parties often run into difficulties in unravelling what
constitutes the real cause(s) of the delay and how much of it is
attributable to each party, for purposes of deciding on the right time
and/or cost compensations accordingly. Review of the literature
suggests that the significant factors responsible for this difficulty
can be narrowed down two main issues. First, there is the issue
of contractual related problems in the form of incomplete or
ambiguous contract documents (Thomas et al. 1994; Al-Najjar
1995; Yates and Hardcastle 2003) and unfair risk allocation in contracts
(Jannadia et al. 2000; Pickavance 2005, p.16). These issues
have however continued to remain quite challenging to resolve
effectively (Al-Najjar 1995; Bajari et al. 2007), partly due to
employers’ inability to fully and adequately address all possible
uncertainties within their contract documents (Ibbs and Ashley
1987; Thomas et al. 1994; Walker and Pryke 2010). The second
issue relates to inadequate or lack of necessary information to
support the entitlement and quantification of claims made
(Jergeas and Hartman 1994; Kangari 1995; Vidogah and Ndekugri
1998). This latter issue is relatively less difficult to deal with than
the former, through for example embarking on improvements in
information management systems of construction organizations.