Content area
Full Text
In construction claims, the term "delay" is used to mean two different but related matters. Delay is often used to mean the time period during which some part of the construction project has been extended beyond what was originally planned because of unanticipated circumstances. Delay can also be the incident that affects the performance of a particular activity, with or without affecting project completion, whereas disruption is an interruption in the planned work sequence or flow of work. It is distinguished from delay in that the duration of work activities or the overall completion may not be extended [5]. Disruption, therefore, is an activity-specific loss of productivity caused by changes in the working conditions under which that activity was performed. Lost productivity is a classic result of disruption, because in the end more labor and equipment hours will be required to do the same work. Delay and disruption are different types of damages. Disruption damages can be traced to specific activities; delay damages cannot. Delay damages are caused only by delays either to the overall contract or to project completion; disruption damages are caused by changes in working conditions that can occur regardless of whether the project's completion date changes. In this means, the absence of delay does not preclude the finding of disruption, and the absence of delay damage does not preclude the finding of disruption damages [6].
As such lost productivity or loss of productivity is one of the most important causes of delay among the various causes of construction delays. Thus in analyzing the delay, care should be taken if there is any productivity change over the delayed duration. There are various methods offered in construction literature that are considered acceptable for determining the schedule impact resulting from project delays and disruptions. Nevertheless, they do not consider the productivity change between the as-planned duration and the as-built duration of an activity. This may cause a serious dispute to determine who is responsible for the delay, especially for the accumulated delay. As such there is a need to carefully consider the delay components of a claim and how such may need to vary to incorporate those complicating factors like reduced or lost productivity over the delayed duration.
In order to analyze the...