Most construction projects are challenged with delays which have substantially negative impacts to any country. Previous studies had been conducted to identify the causes of delay and their ranking in these countries. The objective of the current study is to identify the common significant causes of delay in all Gulf Countries (GCC) and to check their similarity. Previous research works differed in the number of delay factors used. A procedure is proposed and is applied to re-rank and regroup the results of all previous research. ANOVA test technique is applied to verify the results obtained from previous studies for similarity and commonality of delay factors and causes in GCC. Spearman Correlation Coefficient is utilized to evaluate the level of agreement between delay factors. The analysis carried out showed that fourteen delay causes are common in the gulf area. The majority of delay factors include shortages of resources, inefficiency of management teams and governmental regulation. Analysis showed that significant correlation exists between delay causes rankings in Qatar, Kuwait and KSA, while Oman is differing. This study is a contribution to the efforts required to mitigate construction industry delays in the Arabic gulf countries and other countries with similar conditions.

This paper describes a multiple‐criteria decision support system (MCDSS) for the selection of the most appropriate contractor. The system can accommodate the unique characteristics of a project in addition to the qualifications and capabilities of those contractors assessed. The system first evaluates the list of contractors by matching their qualifications with specific project conditions. A short list of eligible contractors is thus selected and further the MCDSS compares the current capabilities of the short listed contractors and their plans for the project under consideration, to select the most appropriate contractor. The Delphi method was used to evoke expertise and obtain reliable assessment values for all criteria related to the contractor qualification, while the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to assess the specific project conditions. The system can be easily modified to adopt specific conditions of the proposed project and also to facilitate the decision maker in explaining the reasons for the elimination of excluded contractor.