If you ask a room full of contractors what they believe are some of the most frustrating and costly events that can occur in construction projects, you’d find that more often than not, the word “delays” will spew out of their mouths.

Extreme frustration and profit is ticking down like a timer are what contractors typically envision when someone utters those dreadful words….There has been a delay. They immediately start thinking about how this will impact them, especially since there may be several workers expecting to start on a project in a couple months. This is a common occurrence in the industry, which often leaves contractors scrambling to find work for their staff to fill the gaps left by construction delays.

There are some causes for delays that are outside of anyone’s control, such as the weather, but often construction project delays can be avoided, and at the very least, mitigated.

Common Causes for Delays:

• Bad weather
• Soil contamination
• Equipment malfunction
• Labour shortages
• Construction mistakes
• Missing or incorrect data
• Funding delays
• Budget Inaccuracies
• Poor Scheduling
• Discovery of Hazardous Material
• Poor Communication of Critical Information

How to Deal With Construction Project Delays After They Happen

Typically when it comes to construction project delays, project managers are usually the first people to receive the blame from either the client or the contractor. Therefore it is essential for PM’s to be well versed in conflict resolution, and even more so to be quick with coming up with countermeasures to help mitigate the damages from delays.

The following list describes a few helpful steps that PM’s can take to help manage delays that may have occurred during the course of a project.

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