Effects of premature termination: case studies of sri lankan construction projects

Abstract

Construction projects are inevitable. But they should be in proper way. However some of projects/contracts come to end before their actual completion. This is an adverse effect to the construction industry and it can be identified as a barrier for sustainable construction. Therefore there is a requirement of avoiding occurrence of adverse premature contract/project termination and mitigating their effects while promoting sustainable construction practices. Hence, the aim of the research is to investigate effects of premature contract/project termination before minimizing adverse effects. In accordance with existing literature, mainly three types of Contract termination can be identified as, termination due to default of client, termination due to default of Contractor and termination for convenience of Employer. But, contract/project terminated prematurely due to whatever reasons, their issues affect on many ways to project stakeholders. Further, less attention is given to some issues relating to project/contract termination like impacts of termination, relationship among parties after termination and steps to prevent premature termination. This research is conducted through three case studies of terminated construction projects in Sri Lanka. To gather data, semi structured interviews were carried out with professionals and unstructured interviews were held with technical employees. Further, three experts were interviewed to clarify compatibility with termination concept. The findings were revealed that there are good impacts as well as bad impacts on stakeholders due to premature project/contract terminations. Most of the time, it results in breaking the relationship among parties, creating disputes, blacklisting the contractor…etc. Further, the research is explored good practices for prevent adverse termination effect which can be implemented in construction industry.