Site-Clearance Bottlenecks: A Study of Delay Drivers in Vietnam’s Public Infrastructure Projects

Vietnam’s rapid infrastructure development is often hindered by site-clearance bottlenecks, delaying project progress and reducing efficiency. This study aims to identify, prioritize, and examine the interrelationships among site-clearance delay factors in public-infrastructure projects. Using a mixed-methods approach, including literature review, interviews, and a survey with principal component analysis, the results highlight key impediments: limited expertise and staff capacity, weak incentive policies for resettlement, project-scale changes, and difficulties with land records. Finance-related issues, such as inflated compensation and delayed payments, are mid-level challenges, while terrain, ancestral graves, and high resettlement costs are less critical but still impactful. Seven latent dimensions were revealed, spanning technical inefficiencies, regulatory complexities, socio-economic challenges, and financial limitations. This diagnostic framework provides policymakers and project owners with clear priorities to reduce site-clearance delays, offering strategic insights for infrastructure management in Vietnam and other developing-country contexts.