IMPACTS OF CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL DELAY IN IRAQ

Abstract

The construction industry is considered one of the most important industries in Iraq. It is well known that most construction projects in this country can experience missed deadlines and cost overruns or both. The main objectives of this study are to evaluate the impact of construction material shortages and to determine the most important problems causing these shortages in Iraq. Above objectives are achieved through a literature review and a survey, which include a questionnaire used to assess the perceptions of the main participants involved in the construction of different types of projects, such as infrastructure, residential, highways and medical projects. This questionnaire is divided into two parts. The main part focuses on evaluating the impact of material shortages on delay by comparing it with other delay factors. The questionnaire includes 20 factors based on the literature review. Answers are collected from 50 participants, including project managers, contractors, consultants, project engineers and academic experts involved in construction. The second part of the questionnaire focuses on finding and evaluating main problems leading to shortage of materials after categorizing the problems into four main parts of technical, experience, management and government problems. Analysis are carried out to evaluate the weight of material shortages when compared to other delay factors and to evaluate the main problems that lead to a shortage of materials. The results of this thesis concludes that problems most likely to cause a shortage of construction materials in Iraq are the lack of experienced employees (unable to understand specification requirements at customs), lack of experienced owners or supervisors to manage existing material factories (experience problem), lack of material managing system in the projects (major management problem) and the shutdown of local material production plants (due to government laws).