Construction delay is one of the basic constrains to achieve the project objectives in developing countries. This study aims to find the causes and effects of construction delays in developing countries. A thorough literature review has been done following the content analysis method. The relevant literature of 28 developing countries was collected from the scholarly journals published in the period of 2006 to 2016. The different developing countries are grouped into three geographic regions, i.e. South and Southeast Asia, Middle East, and Africa. In these regions, total 53 potential causes of delay under 8 major groups are identified. Frequency and ranking of these factors have been done. The factors, delay in progress payment by owner, contractors' cash flow problem, improper planning and scheduling, poor site management, and change order by owner during construction, are acknowledged as critical causes of delay in developing countries. This study will assist both academic and professional experts providing more insight about the construction delays and project management in developing countries.

Construction projects have been observed to have problems of project delays and disruptions and the South African construction industry is not an exception. This research identified causes and effects of project delay and disruption through a desktop study. Subsequently, a questionnaire was designed and used to conduct a survey to obtain the views of the three main construction project participants - clients, consultants, and contractors. The questionnaire contains 48 causes and 13 effects of project delay and disruption identified from the desktop study. This research identified sixteen most important causes of project delay and disruption and five most important effects of delay and disruption. Sixteen most important causes were: (1) strikes, (2) rework due to errors during construction, (3) shortage of materials in market, (4) suspension of work by the client, (5) poor communication between the parties, (6) ineffective planning and scheduling of project, (7) delays in issuing working drawings, (8) mistakes and discrepancies in design documents, (9) shortage of labours and equipment, (10) delay in decision making process by the client, (11) unforeseen ground conditions, (12) unclear and inadequate details in drawing, (13) inadequate contractor's experience, (14) delay in approving changes in the scope of works, (15) delay in material delivery and (16) unacceptable quality of materials. The five major effects include: (1) create stress on contractors, (2) cost overrun, (3) time overrun, (4) poor quality of work due to rush, and (5) disputes. Furthermore, the result of this research was compared with the result of previous studies conducted in other regions of Africa in terms of causes and effects of project delay and disruption. The research concludes that numerous causes and effects of delay and disruption are limited to South African construction projects based on the comparison. The causes limited to South African construction projects include: (1) strikes, (2) suspension of work by the client (3) mistakes and discrepancies in design documents (4) delay in approving changes in the scope of works and (5) unacceptable quality of materials, while the two major effects limited to South African construction projects includes: (1) create stress on contractors and (2) poor quality of work. In conclusion, some recommendations were made in order to minimise the causes of delay and disruption identified.

This paper represents the experimental investigation of chloride penetration into plain concretes and reinforced concretes. The main objective of this work is to study the main influencing parameters affecting corrosion of steel in concrete. Plain cement concrete and reinforced cement concrete with different water-cement ratios and different cover depth were subjected to ponding test. Ponding of specimens were done for different periods into 10% NaCl solution. Depth of penetration of chloride solution into specimens was measured after ponding. Specimens were crushed and reinforcements were washed using $HNO_3$ solution and weight loss due to corrosion was calculated accordingly. There was a linear relationship between depth of penetration and water-cement ratio. It was also observed that, corrosion of reinforcing steel increases with chloride ponding period and with water-cement ratio. Corrosion of steel in concrete can be minimized by providing good quality concrete and sufficient concrete cover over the reinforcing bars. Water-cement ratio has to be low enough to slow down the penetration of chloride salts into concrete.

Most local agencies such as counties and small cities continuously express difficulties in making technically and financially defensible decisions on their pavement infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation. Unlike pavement systems managed by state highway agencies, the total lane-miles of many local pavements are significantly short and they are managed by a limited number of staff who typically have multiple responsibilities. Most local agencies also do not have historical pavement performance data and the lack of a systematic decision making framework exacerbates the problem. A structured framework and an easily accessible decision support tool that reflects their local requirements, practices and operational conditions would greatly assist them in making consistent and defensible decisions. This study fills this gap by developing a systematic pavement treatment selection framework and a spreadsheet based tool for local agencies. It is expected that the proposed framework will significantly help local agencies to improve their pavement asset management practices at the project level.

The Jinshanling section of the Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications in northern China that was constructed for strategic military defenses. This section was first built in the beginning of the Ming Dynasty in AD 1368 and then underwent major construction, reconstruction and renovation during the late Ming Dynasty, approximately in AD 1569. The Jinshanling section is 10.5 km long, a very short section compared with the entire 21,200 km wall. The wall section is located in Luanping County, Hebei province, China. This research paper focuses on the construction methods and materials of the wall and the towers in the area. The research methodology includes site visits, knowledge acquisition of experts and 3D graphic modeling. This study reveals that the materials selected for the structure include rubbles and rammed earth, bricks, stones, timber, and mortar. The erection sequence of the wall and the towers was a bottom-up fashion using various ancient construction techniques, such as the fire-setting rock blasting techniques and the surveying techniques from the Sea Island Mathematical Manual.