Significant factors causing time and cost overruns in construction projects in the Gaza Strip: Contractors’ perspective

The construction industry is considered one of the most important industries in Palestine. However, most construction projects in the Gaza Strip have been exposed to time and cost overruns. The aim of this paper is to identify factors influencing time and cost overruns in construction projects in the Gaza Strip. A detailed questionnaire containing 110 factors that caused time delay and 42 factors that caused cost overruns was developed as a basis to invite inputs from contractors. 80 questionnaires were distributed to contractors and 66 were completed and returned representing an 83% response rate. The view of contractors has been analyzed to rank the causes of delay and cost overruns on an importance index. The most significant causes of time delay identified in this research are; strikes, border closures, lack of materials in markets, shortage of construction materials at site, delay of material delivery to site, cash