Study of Change Orders in Design-Build-Maintain Projects of the XXI Century Schools in Puerto Rico

Change orders have a negative impact in construction projects because they can produce significant increases in cost and extensions in contract duration. This research identifies and evaluates the change orders causes in design-build-maintain projects under the school renovation program of the XXI Century in Puerto Rico. The Pareto diagram was used to identify and evaluate the major causes that contribute to increase costs and duration of the projects. There were 197 change orders analyzed in 40 schools. These resulted in an increase of 13% of the total contract costs, and an increase in project duration of 30% of the total contractual time. The most significant and important cause identified was owner directed changes. It was found that the owner (Authority for the Financing of the Infrastructure), and the user (Department of Education), should improve the communication and coordination, starting from the planning phase of the project. Therefore, one of the identified methods to reduce the changes that cause higher costs and time extensions is to establish better planning by the owner and user. Having planned well, the increases in costs and time extensions of the contract, due to change orders, would experience a reduction of 95% and 94%, respectively.