Construction delays are common in civil engineering projects in Hong Kong, inevitably resulting in contractual claims and increased project cost. This study was aimed, first, at gathering the perceptions of civil construction practitioners on how significant are the causes of delay; and, second, investigating whether the suggestions as stated in the report of the Construction Industry Review Committee (the Committee comprises members with good standing and knowledge in the construction and related fields as well as those from other professions who are responsible for examining the current state of the construction industry in terms of its output quantity, the quality of work, its environmental friendliness, site safety, its workforce and the system of supervision) are applicable to and effective at mitigating the corresponding delays with reference to a ranking order established using the mean score method. The extent of the differences in perception among the different respondent groups on these two issues was also examined using the rank agreement factor (RAF), percentage agreement (PA), and percentage disagreement (PD). The differences in the perceptions of the respondents on the significance of delays and the actual causes of delays for the six projects studied were also examined. The results of the study showed that the respondents tended to admit their own faults as shown in the top ten significant causes of delay. A strong consensus was found between the client and consultant groups on the significance of the various causes of delay $(\mathrm{PA}=74\%)$ and the effectiveness of mitigation measures $(\mathrm{PA}=67\%)$ compared with the other pairs of groups. The consultant and contractor groups held extremely different perceptions regarding the significance of various delay causes ($\mathrm{RAF}=4.9$ and $\mathrm{PD}=32\%$ ) and the effectiveness of corresponding mitigation measures ($\mathrm{RAF}=6.2$ and $\mathrm{PD}=47\%$ ). It is believed that the findings can provide much more insight for the construction practitioners as well as the researchers and thus help to improve the productivity and overall performance of civil construction projects in Hong Kong.

This research describes a study of safety attitudes, practices and characteristics of construction firms in Hong Kong and their relationship to safety performance on construction sites. Forty-five construction companies are compared and studied. Each adopts different safety management strategies. The 45 companies were composed of 11 small, 25 medium and 9 large-scale construction firms. Construction firms' safety performance is measured by site casualty rates. Based upon the information collected from the survey, the accident rates are first derived and compared with the industrial norms. Then the following safety measures, and strategies of contractors in Hong Kong and their associated safety performance, are compared: involvement of top management in safety management; safety orientation programmes for new workers; safety awards or incentive schemes; use of post-accident investigation systems; safety training schemes; safety committees; level of subcontracting. The first part of the research studies the relation between these measures and the safety performance using a number of tables. The results show that these practices have indeed improved site safety. The second part uses a multiple regression analysis to study the combined effect of these schemes and practices on safety performance. The study concludes that the provision of safety training, the use of directly employed labour, the use of post-accident investigation as a feedback, and promoting safety practices by safety award campaigns and incentive schemes, are the most effective tool in mitigating site casualties.