CIB2007-150 The Evaluation of the Delays in the Portuguese Construction João Pedro Couto, José Cardoso Teixeira ABSTRACT The lack of competitiveness of the Portuguese construction industry has been recurrently mentioned in the press and in technical literature. Some symptoms of this have been stressed by several parties and their causes often related to the lack of accomplishment of essential management functions in construction projects. In view of this, a research project has been launched to help clarity causes and find possible solutions for the problem. Parallel to the project development, a PhD thesis on construction delays has been undertaken by the first author. In the scope of the latter, a large survey to Portuguese construction stakeholders has been conducted. This paper briefly reports the results of this, providing some information on the survey and commenting results in the shape of preventive measures highlighted by respondents. Understanding the causes of project delays may help in curbing the problem and contribute to an improvement in management and productivity, inevitably making the sector a more productive one contributing to country economic development. Keywords Portuguese Construction Competitiveness, Construction Delays, Cost Overruns, National Survey. 1. INTRODUCTION Over the past few years, the lack of competitiveness of the Portuguese construction industry has been insistently mentioned in the press and in technical literature. The symptoms have long been known: time and budget overruns lack of safety and insufficient quality. The main reasons often adduced are the CIB World Building Congress 2007 292