Track: Project Management

Abstract

The construction industry is one of the largest contributing sectors towards the Gross Domestic Product of countries globally, and South Africa is no exception. The construction industry in South Africa is marred with persistent and extensive delays. This study investigates the project delay factors in construction projects, particularly the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa and Transnet traction substation projects in the South African railway engineering environment. The research also presents the remedial actions and mitigations suitable to be implemented to manage project delays in the project engineering environment. The research was conducted through a literature review and a questionnaire survey and the research approach was deductive. An online questionnaire survey was employed to collect primary data. The literature review revealed eight top project delay-causing factors in traction substation projects, forming the basis of the questionnaire; and the questionnaire results correlated with the literature review. This paper proposes suitable measures to manage delays in construction projects, improving the quality of work and managing cost and schedule overruns.