The Effects of Delays in Road Construction Projects in Tripoli, Libya

Construction delays have become endemic in Libya. It is imperative to create awareness of the extent to which such delays can adversely affect project delivery, especially with regard to road construction projects. It is clear that the Libyan road construction industry also faces the issue of not being able to complete projects within the allocated time. This paper identifies the effects of road construction delays, evaluates these through a questionnaire, and assesses them using an empirical method. A detailed review of related literature produced the secondary data, while the primary data was obtained via a structured questionnaire which targeted the road construction projects owners, consultants and contractors. A 71% response rate was achieved; 256 out of the 360 questionnaires sent out were returned. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data received from the questionnaires. The findings of the study reveal that the major outcomes of road construction project schedule overruns in Tripoli, Libya include cost overruns, time extensions, disputes, loss of profit, breaches of contract, poor quality of work and company’s bad reputation. The study makes a contribution to the knowledge of the subject of the outcomes of road construction project schedule overruns in Tripoli. Computation of the means and standard deviations, together with a structural equation model, have been used for the data analysis and inference. It is found that delays in road construction projects widely lead to cost overrun, time overrun, litigation and disputes. The findings of the study also provide significant insights into the construction industry, which will help it formulate strategies in order to avoid delays and their consequences. The most important effects identified were time overrun, cost overrun and obstruction of economic and country development. The recommendations and limitations are discussed in the concluding part of the study