EXPLORING OF THE FACTORS INFLUENCING THE HOLISTIC FORMULATION OF CONSTRUCTION DURATION ESTIMATION

Abstract

Construction duration is defined as the time required to complete all activities in a construction project, from start to finish. Whilst the time objective is invariably a critical criterion for measuring construction project performance and effective time management is always a priority, project delays remain common. Among the many contributing factors, inadequate project planning and scheduling is a significant cause, highlighting the importance of establishing an accurate and realistic schedule from the outset. As most available scheduling techniques available focus on activities’ time estimation to build up the construction duration, the study took on holistic view to project time planning where potential issues or delays are identified and reviewed at early planning stages of construction duration estimation. The study analyses a set of 123 public projects from the Public Works Department in Sarawak, Malaysia and seeks to understand the patterns and factors influencing the formulation of overall construction duration estimation. The paper reviewed on the project case studies’ original time objectives, actual final construction durations and their causes of delays and duration of delays through the studies of project documents such as extension of time applications and approval, correspondences, site records and minutes of meeting. The findings reveal that out of 123 projects, 111 projects did not meet their time requirement due to factors such as exceptionally inclement weather, project size and complexity, project geographical location and the related location conditions and obstructions by external parties and other regulatory requirement authorities. These factors will be as incorporated into a systematic formulation of construction duration estimation as a preemptive approach time management in order to provide project managers a strategic overview to setting project time objective, forming a stronger and more reliable project scheduling.