paraphrasing some paragraphs
Disputes in construction may be caused by one or a combination of several reasons. It may start with a simple reason and lead to a substantial set of interrelated complex disputes in contract agreement. Dispute may lead to adversarial relation between the involved parties in construction projects (i.e. general contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, lenders, developers, design professionals and owners). In Saudi Arabia, the construction industry is one of the main economic keys. However, it suffers some major problems that affect its role in building up the national economy. Assaf et al. (1995) found and reported that the contract disagreement was one of the main delay causes in large building projects in Saudi Arabia. Based on their research, great attention should be paid to disputes between construction parties that lead to negative effects on the project success.
Keep this do not delete the original text
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Construction industry is a leader in dispute occurrences. However, very limited researches were conducted to study dispute issues in construction projects. Semple et al. (1994) studied disputes on 24 construction projects in Canada. They concluded six common categories of dispute: premium time, equipment costs, financing costs, loss of revenue, loss of productivity, and site overhead. Colin et al., 1996 conducted a study on 438 dispute events on 21 projects in the UK. They concluded that disputes between construction parties were mainly related to six areas: payment and budget, performance, delay and time, negligence, quality, and administration.
Keep this do not delete the original text
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ayudhya (2011) conducted a study in Honk Kong to identify and appraise the dispute problems in residential building projects. The severity of the 43 identified dispute factors were evaluated by 175 consisting of owners, consultants and main contractors. The results of the survey indicated that construction projects faced moderately severe dispute level between owners and main contractors. The delay in progress payment by owner factor was the highest individual severity index followed by unforeseen problem underground, unrealistic contract durations, inaccurate bill of quantities and inappropriate type of foundation.
Keep this do not delete the original text
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rhys (1994) conducted a general survey of construction industry and lawyers to study the disputes in construction industry. He found 10 factors in the development of disputes: poor management, adversarial culture, poor communications, inadequate design, economic environment, unrealistic tendering, influence of lawyers, unrealistic client expectations, inadequate contract drafting, and poor workmanship.
Keep this do not delete the original text
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Assaf and Al-Hejji (2006) conducted a survey on time performance of different types of construction projects in Saudi Arabia to determine the causes of delay in large construction projects. Surveys concluded that 70% of projects experienced time overrun and found that 45 out of 76 projects considered were delayed. They found that the average time overrun was between 10% and 30%. 73 causes of delay were identified during the research. They concluded that only one cause of delay is common between all parties, which is ‘‘change orders by owner during construction’’. They found that many causes are common between two parties, such as delay in progress payments, ineffective planning and scheduling by contractor, poor site management and supervision by contractor, shortage of labors and difficulties in financing by contractor.
Keep this do not delete the original text
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The construction industry is one of the main sectors that provide important ingredients for the development of national economy. However, it is a leader in dispute occurrences. Disputes can be damaging and expensive, thus it should be studied more to be minimized or prevented. This study aims at identifying direct and indirect dispute causes in residential building projects in Saudi Arabia from contractors’ viewpoint. To do so, 120 contractors completed a structured questionnaire survey. 29 direct dispute causes and 32 indirect dispute causes were identified through the literature review and interviews with local construction experts. The contractors were asked to rank the identified dispute causes according to their level of severity. The analysis of the identified causes indicated that the top five severe direct causes are: delay in progress payment by owner, unrealistic contract duration, change orders, poor quality of completed works, and labor inefficiencies respectively. While the top five indirect causes are: inadequate contractor’s experience, lack of communication between construction parties, ineffective planning and scheduling of project by contractor, cash problems during construction, and poor estimation practices.
Keep this do not delete the original text
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The statistical analysis of the gathered data shows the following: (1) there are 4 direct causes and 10 indirect causes with severity index higher than 80, (2) there are 12 direct causes and 11 indirect causes with severity index between 60 and 80, (3) the minimum severity index is 44.64 and 37.78 for direct causes and indirect causes, respectively, (4) the results of standard deviation and coefficient of variation show reasonable values and good data compactness and consistency, (5) the results of standard deviation and coefficient of variation show high agreement between contractors on the impact of the top dispute causes. These results indicate that the identified causes are highly relevant to dispute problems over the residential building projects in Saudi Arabia.
Keep this do not delete the original text
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
