Research Publications
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Publication Open Access Critical risk factors influencing the management of disruptions in construction projects: Insights from recent challenges in Sri Lanka(Elsevier Ltd, 2025-01) Rajapakshe, WThe construction industry has a significantly contribute to the economy of Sri Lanka. However, in recent years, its overall share of the national output has declined, primarily due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, political instability, and ongoing economic challenges. Many construction firms halted projects and laid off employees, highlighting the critical need for effective risk management during crises to predict and mitigate risks. This study explores emerging risk factors in Sri Lanka's construction sector post-crisis. Using a three-phase linear decision-making model, the research combines a literature review, a survey of 290 construction professionals, and structural equation modelling (SEM) to identify major risk factors across four phases of risk management. Key risks out of 23 include general factors like health and safety issues, material costs, regulations, political interference, corruption, and labor shortages, while phase-specific risks involve delays, budget overruns, payment delays, and cancellations. The study revises the risk registers to improve risk management strategies. While the findings are context-specific to Sri Lanka, they may offer indicative insights for other developing countries facing similar crisis-driven disruptions. The practical implications extend to multinational and local companies, supported by data from 22 countries, offering a comprehensive framework for addressing construction industry challenges in volatile environments. The novelty of this study lies in its use of theoretical triangulation to align Classical Risk Management theory with real-world operational risk factors, revealing critical overlaps, behavioral influences, and contextual gaps in traditional frameworks.Publication Open Access Data exploration on the factors associated with cost overrun on social housing projects in Trinidad and Tobago(Elsevier Ltd, 2024-02) Chadee, A. A; Allis, C; Rathnayake, U; Martin, H; Azamathulla, H. MThis data article explores the factors that contribute to cost overrun on public sector projects within Trinidad and Tobago. The data was obtained through literature research, and structured questionnaires, designed using open-ended questions and the Likert scale. The responses were gathered from project actors and decision-makers within the public and private construction industry, mainly, project managers, contractors, engineers, architects, and consultants. The dataset was analysed using frequency, simple percentage, mean, risk impact, and fuzzy logic via the fuzzy synthetic evaluation method (FSE). The significance of the analysed data is to determine the critical root causes of cost overrun which affect public sector infrastructure development projects (PSIDPs), from being completed on time and within budget. The dataset is most useful to project and construction management professionals and academia, to provide additional insight into the understanding of the leading factors associated with cost overrun and the critical group in which they occur (political factors). Such understanding can encourage greater decisions under uncertainty and complexity, thus accounting for and reducing cost overrun on public sector projects. © 2023Publication Open Access Conflict Handling Styles used by Design Team Leaders During Post Contract Stage of Building Construction Projects in Sri Lanka(SLIIT, Faculty of Engineering, 2024-03) Nuwandhara, R.M.K.K.; De Silva, G.H.S.P.In comparison to other industries, construction sector encompasses a distinct, complex, and a competitive environment. It enriches the community with improvements when individuals with diverse perspectives, abilities, and degrees of construction expertise collaborate with each other. In this highly competitive multiparty context, conflicts have been labeled as one of the key constraints that prevent the `success of construction projects. Conflict is a fact that everyone must deal with on a regular basis. Construction projects are therefore not an exception. It entails different types of conflicts. To handle these different types of conflicts, construction professionals use different conflict handling styles. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate design team leaders’ preference of conflict handling styles and its impact on team spirit of the members of the design team during the post contract stage of building construction projects in Sri Lanka. To collect data, an e-based, closed-ended questionnaire was used incorporating the conflict handling styles introduced in Rahim's Dual Concern theory. The questionnaire was answered by 56 professionals who have the experience of working in the design team during the post contract stage. The study was limited to the building construction projects in Sri Lanka. To analyze the gathered data, descriptive statistics such as mean, percentage, count correlation co-efficient etc. were used. The study has revealed that during the post contract stage, the design team leaders use all five conflict handling styles of Rahim’s Dual concern theory: integrating style, obliging style, dominating style, avoiding style, and compromising style in different frequencies to handle conflicts among design team professionals. The design team professionals often use compromising style and rarely use integrating style, obliging style, dominating style, and avoiding style to handle conflicts among the design team professionals during the post contract stage respectively. Furthermore, the study indicates that these styles bring different levels of impact to the team spirit of design team professionals during the post contract stage of building construction projects in Sri Lanka. The team spirit of design team members is shown to be strongly affected by the compromising style. In contrast, the other four conflict handling styles, integrating style, obligating style, dominating style, and avoiding style, were identified to moderately impact team spirit. Moreover, findings revealed that all these five conflicts handling styles show a strong relationship with the team spirit of design team members during the post-contract stage of building construction projects in Sri Lanka. The research findings may assist construction industry design team leaders and other stakeholders to manage conflicts in a more efficient way and provide an insight to the way to handle conflicts to improve the team spirit of the design team during the post-contract stage of building construction projects in Sri Lanka.Publication Open Access Whole Life Costing Awareness and Implementation Challenges in the Sri Lankan Construction Industry(SLIIT, Faculty of Engineering, 2024-03) Jayasinghe, D.I.C; Abeynayake, D.NConstruction industry is highly demanding, especially with regard to the project cost as a significant aspect. However, more informed cost advice can be produced considering the project’s life cycle that begins with the conception and ends with its disposal instead of using a conventional initial capital cost basis. Thus, Whole Life Costing (WLC) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) concepts are essential. Though many LCC research studies exist, WLC studies are minimal in the Sri Lankan construction industry context. Therefore, this study aims to explore WLC awareness and implementation challenges in the Sri Lankan construction industry. A literature review was conducted to search for the concepts. Empirical data were gathered using questionnaires by implementing a quantitative survey strategy. Findings depict that the awareness of WLC in the Sri Lankan construction industry is poor, preventing its benefits. Moreover, this research identified difficulty in identifying includes and excludes for calculating WLC, lack of details at early stages, lack of awareness of WLC benefits, lack of understanding of WLC tools, lack of reliable data and lack of expertise/knowledge on WLC as the primary challenges in implementing WLC in the Sri Lankan construction industry. Therefore, these challenges must be mitigated for the beneficial WLC implementation in the Sri Lankan construction industry while enhancing awareness and knowledge of the WLC concept among professionals, especially quantity surveyors, to facilitate responsible initiation of WLC practices in the Sri Lankan construction industry.Publication Open Access The Effect of Timely Delivery of Construction Projects on the Economic Growth in Sri Lanka(Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, 2023-03-25) Dehereagoda, H; Gamage, I.SEconomic growth is the increase in the production of goods and services in the economy from one time period to the next. Construction, as the sector with the biggest multiplier effect, has helped continue to accelerate Sri Lanka's economic growth. Timely construction output generates socioeconomic growth and wealth generation in a country. Delays are one of the major issues in the construction industry in Sri Lanka, which can have an ultimate impact on the growth of the national economy. Therefore, the research aims at investigating the effect of the late completion of construction projects in the public sector on the factors contributing to economic growth in Sri Lanka. A mixedmethod approach was adopted, using preliminary interviews and questionnaires as data collection techniques. The collected data was analyzed using manual content analysis and the relative importance index (RII). Twenty (20) factors contributing to the economic growth in Sri Lanka were identified through both literature and preliminary interviews. Among them, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), external debt, an effective procurement system, open direct assessment, and a proper system of transportation are themost important factors, as highlighted by the respondents. The impact of the delay in completion of public sector construction projects on the identified factors was identified through the questionnaire and classified into three levels: less impacted (RII < 50%), averagely impacted (50% < RII < 70%), and highly impacted (RII > 70%). Including foreign direct investment, credit to the private sector, a proper system of transportation, the material price index, imports and exports, and the service sector overall, twelve factors have been dispersed between 0.65 and 0.70, which represents an overall percentage of 60%. So the findings validate that there is a strong impact on economic growth from public sector project delays. In a nutshell, the research findings revealed that the on-time completion ofpublic sector construction projects strongly affects economic growth, which thereby emphasizes the importance of the on-time completion of construction projects. This study further recommends that in order for a project to proceed well and be completed on schedule, sufficient planning should be done before construction begins with the aid of new technology.Publication Open Access Attributes of ADR in the Sri Lankan Construction Industry(SLIIT, Faculty of Engineering, 2022-09-22) Edirisinghe, V; Marsh, D; Borthwick, F; Siriwardena, M; Cotgrave, AAlternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods were introduced to the construction industry to avoid the negative effects of litigation in relation to the cost, time, and business relationships of a construction project. This study focused on identifying the current ADR practices in the Sri Lankan construction industry and examined the specific attributes of each method to create a more effective process. A qualitative research strategy was carried out with interviews with industry professionals working in the Sri Lankan Construction Industry. Content analysis using NVivo software was used to analyse the data. The key findings revealed that the neutral third party has good knowledge of construction. Despite the differences in each ADR method, disputing parties do not have the confidence in the neutral third party or trust in the process. This study also revealed that the unavailability of these key attributes will finally affect the cost and reputation of the ADR methods. Therefore, the research suggests that to improve the ADR process and its success there should be awareness studies on ADR methods and training for ADR practitioners within the Sri Lankan Construction Industry.