Exploring the significant factors that influence delays in construction projects in Hargeisa

Over the past decades, construction delays have been perceived as a global challenge that hinders the time delivery, budget, and quality of construction projects. It is the most common, expensive, and risky problem associated with both private and public construction projects. Within this context, the aim of this study is to investigate the significant factors that influence delays in construction projects in Hargeisa, using the road and building projects as a baseline. Through a questionnaire survey with 51 critical delay factors that are categorized into seven major groups, data were collected from 51 construction stakeholders selected based on simple random sampling from the different construction companies. Feedback from the respondents was analyzed using Relative Importance Index (RII) for ranking purposes. Results showed that delay in honoring payment progressively, underestimation or overestimation of the project cost, and delay in the approval of major changes in the work scope were ranked as the three major causes of delays in construction projects in Hargeisa. The implications of these results are vital to future projects as they clearly demonstrate how less attention is given to the application of project management tools such as robust cost, scope and risk management in construction projects. As such, construction stakeholders are recommended to make efforts to use the appropriate project management practices needed to manage the 16 identified critical delay factors, when executing future construction projects. Although, the current study focused on Somaliland construction projects, it expands and improves the understanding of delay factors in the global context, and as such can be applied to other countries and future studies.