Delay in reconstruction projects: Analysis of highly damaged versus minimally damaged infrastructure

The increased number and intensity of extreme events means that transport infrastructure (FRSs) is being affected more often. The chaotic and dynamic nature of a post-disaster environment leads to serious time delays in their reconstruction, and this research aims to determine the key factors that contribute to the delays, as well as to classify them as highly or minimally damaged systems. A structured survey that consisted of identified potential FRSs was designed and distributed to professionals who were involved in completing similar reconstruction projects. After collecting and analyzing the data, the results revealed that effective coordination is critical to complete a project with minimum schedule delays in both highly and minimally damaged reconstruction projects. The results also demonstrated that ineffective information management as well as ineffective logistics management cause serious delays in reconstruction of transport infrastructure after disasters. The results clearly showed that when the transportation infrastructure experiences minimum damage, less traffic disruption usually occurs through reconstruction procedure compared with highly damaged reconstruction projects. The outcomes of this study can help project managers effectively manage the timeline of a reconstruction project and substantially mitigate delays.