Factors of construction delay at rural area in Sarawak / Ahmad Alif Rahimi Zamzuriarepen

The construction industry is a major industry that contributes to Malaysia's economic development. However, delay in construction becomes the worse issue. In Malaysia, only 30% of the public sector building project finished within the schedule, and another 70% is completed beyond the project schedule. The studies have been done delay in Malaysia construction project stated that 17.3% from 417 government projects is a delay. This research aims to ascertain the factor of construction delay in a rural area among contractors in Sarawak. Therefore, this research will study the factor causing project delays in a rural area, identify the implication of project delay in a rural area, and determine the strategies in mitigating project delay in a rural area. 238 set of questionnaires was distributed to the contractor company grade G1 until G5 at Kuching Sarawak. This research employed descriptive analysis, and the result was calculated using the average index method. Overall the result shows the respondent has a high level of agreement on the factor of causing delay, the implication of project delay, and strategies to mitigate project delay. However, the finding revealed that late payment or underpayment by the client, difficulty delivering construction material to the construction site, and high cost of material due to additional delivery costs to rural site construction is the most factor causing construction delay. This may cause time overrun and cost overrun. It also causes a bad reputation for the contractor. Therefore, the research result can be used for the factor of construction delay and the implication.