Empirical assessment of the likelihood and duration of highway project time delays

Delays in the completion of highway construction and maintenance projects are important concerns to state highway agencies and contractors alike because such time delays can have a number of adverse consequences, such as extending the duration of active work zones, contributing to road-user dissatisfaction and increasing the risk of litigation regarding delay responsibility. In this paper, using data from 1,722 highway projects in Indiana, random-parameter statistical models are estimated to study the factors that contribute to the likelihood of encountering a project time delay and its duration. The model estimation results show that the likelihood and duration of project time delays are significantly influenced by factors such as project cost (contract bid amount), project type, planned project duration, and the likelihood of adverse weather.