Abstract:
The objectives of this research are to study the damages and the compensation of damages caused by construction delay which occurred from contractor failure to complete the work within the schedule, and to propose guidelines for assessment of delay damages which assessors can apply to set reasonable penalty rates. The study was done by performing questionnaire survey about the damages caused from construction delays, collecting and analyzing the data related to the delay damages and the compensation of delay damages which occurred in each type of construction work, proposing the guidelines for assessment of delay damages and concluding the research. According to the study, at present, Thai Government regards the compensation as the contractors penalty. An amount of penalty combined with that fined for construction delay is specified in the contract to claim from the contractor. This regulation is predetermined without any details of the actual damages such as types, amounts and the calculation methods. Also, there are problems in penalty rate setting for delay and in unsuccessful claiming for an additional amount indicated in the contract. These lead to the inefficiency in claim and compensation procedure. Also, it differs from the international practice, which predetermines compensation rate by an amount of possible damages. As to the guidelines for assessing damages caused by construction delay of project that can be assessed in form of figures, in the road project, for example, they are the reduction in User Time Cost and Vehicle Operating Cost. These cost can be calculated from advantages that road users gain and effects they have during the construction period. After having studied the assessment of road project, it can be concluded that road users benefits from the project should be paid high level of attention when compared with the effects occurred. Moreover, in irrigation projects, the assessable benefits consist of three components: benefit in agriculture, benefit in water consumption, and benefit in fishery. The difference between the assessed damages found in the case-study project are due to the difference ratio of each plantation and the different consequent beneficial areas resulted from variety of plantations. Finally, the application for assessed penalty rates on construction delay depends on the value of damages which can be directly in form of figures and consequential one which assessors need to analyze carefully.