Browsing by Author "Gunarathna, N"

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item: Conference-Full-text
Delays and disruptions in the construction industry during the global pandemic
(Ceylon Institute of Builders - Sri Lanka, 2022-06-24) Gammanage, SH; Gunarathna, N; Sandanayake, YG; Waidyasekara, KGAS; Gunatilake, S
COVID-19 pandemic has become a global catastrophe today dragging many nations towards severe economic distress. The Sri Lankan economy has no exception. Not surprisingly, the sluggish economic conditions in the country have adversely affected the construction industry in Sri Lanka. The pandemic has resulted in almost every construction project getting delayed or disrupted. This research aims to determine the factors that caused delays and disruptions in large scale construction projects in Sri Lanka due to pandemic. The overall impact of the global pandemic on construction projects in both local and international platforms were identified through a comprehensive literature review. Additionally, the impact on the local domain in terms of delay and disruption was assessed based on exploratory interviews and survey questionnaire disseminated among industry experts. Final conclusions were drawn by conducting 9 case studies and analysing responses to survey questionnaire provided by 30 industry practitioners. This study assisted in finding measures and mechanisms currently in use to mitigate the impact of delay and disruption of the construction phase of construction projects. The findings also paved the way to recognize innovative mitigation strategies to control the adverse impact on on-going construction projects. Analysis of the responses concluded that, delay in project kick-off, delays in material delivery, shortage of material, project suspension, reduction in the workforce productivity, health and safety concerns, regular price escalations as the key elements attributed to impact the project progress. The study has identified the present mitigating controls over delays or disruption are barely sufficient to address the concern and thus emphasised the need to resort to more effective techniques to remedy the issue.
item: Conference-Full-text
Effect of COVID-19 on the small-scale construction companies: The case of Colombo district, Sri Lanka
(Ceylon Institute of Builders - Sri Lanka, 2022-06-24) Namarathna, CP; Gunarathna, N; Sandanayake, YG; Waidyasekara, KGAS; Gunatilake, S
COVID-19 is a global pandemic that has wreaked havoc on the lives of many individuals and has had a severe impact on the global economy. During this crisis, small and medium-scale businesses suffer the most and are the least prepared among all companies as per the previous studies done in other parts of the world. The majority of the small-scale construction firms in Sri Lanka act as subcontractors and generate job opportunities for a considerable number of people and are able to create a multiplier effect on the whole economy. However, it was observed that they are more vulnerable to the adverse impact of the pandemic. Thus, the principal goal of this research is to explore possible survival strategies to overcome critical financial issues of small-scale construction companies during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka. A mixedmethod approach was adopted to gather the data for the study. A comprehensive literature review was carried out to identify the impact of COVID-19 on both global and local construction industries. The data for this study was gathered using semi-structured interviews and a comprehensive questionnaire survey with small scale construction company owners and construction industry professionals. The findings highlighted the key financial issues faced by the small-scale construction companies due to the pandemic including delays in client payments, supply chain management issues, frequent price escalation of construction materials, and inability to repay loans. The respondents suggested creating partnerships with financially strong companies, reduction of unwanted expenses, modifying supply chain channels and agreements, and ensuring business continuity plans as the strategies to be used to overcome the financial burden that occurred due to the pandemic.