Understanding delays in construction in conflict zones

Delay-related issues have been identified as one of the key inhibiting factors in the construction sector due to its significant impact on project performance and completion. As the construction industry faces these problems, the understanding of delays in construction needs to be improved in order to successfully meet project goals. This study focuses on understanding delays in construction projects in conflicts zones, especially in Palestine. The situation in conflict zones is affected by several parties, external to the project. How project managers identify and respond to these delays varies immensely, probably based largely on their perception of risk. This situation in conflict zones introduces a different set of delays that need to be considered carefully. Construction projects in Palestine face a high degree of problems, especially delays, due to the ongoing and prolonged Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This research aims to identify and understand delays caused by external factors arising from the situation in conflict zones in Palestine. Because of this conflict, there is a lack of large-scale construction projects such as universities, airports, shopping centres or highways. Thus this research focuses on residential projects, for which there is a high demand. Most of these delays and problems affect time, cost and quality of constructing residential projects. Initially, ten targeted expert interviews were carried out in order to identify types of external delays arising from the conflict situation. Then a wider survey was conducted to understand the scale, nature and impact of each delay on construction project performance. The research identifies factors that are specific to conflict zones that cause construction delays. It concludes that limited building areas, limited water resources, segmentation of land, lack of use of technology and fluctuation in material cost are the most critical factors that lead to construction delays in this conflict zones.