HKA has announced its Eighth Annual CRUX Insight Report titled ‘From Insight to Foresight’. The report features critical insights based on an in-depth analysis of construction and engineering projects from around the world. This year, the analysis revealed that valuable progress has been made in curbing the main drivers of claims and disputes (and damage to the schedules and budgets of distressed projects), despite a sharp spike in conflicts related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The latest edition features insights garnered from over 2,200 projects worldwide valued at US $2.43tn and spread across 114 countries. Key findings this year include:
Disputed costs averaged around a third of contract budgets Claimed extensions of time would add two thirds to works schedules New time-based analyses revealed a big shift in claim and dispute patterns Most causes have reduced in frequency, with regional variations Despite the pandemic, disputed schedule and budget overruns were lower post-2020 COVID-19 caused conflict on almost a quarter of projects Cashflow and payment issues ranking higher in tougher economic timesCRUX is the ongoing research programme of HKA, and the latest analysis revealed new evidence of significant reductions in many underlying drivers of conflict on distressed projects, limiting the damage to schedules and budgets.
For the first time, this year’s report sets out how projects’ scale affects dispute frequency and type – and investigates how claims and outcomes vary with the form of contract, HKA explained.
Of the 2.43tn in projects that were researched, the firm said that a large proportion of them were megaprojects with an average project CapEX of $1.25bn. This year’s report revealed that the total of costs claimed stood at $95bn; sums in dispute averaged 33.4% of contract budgets, and time extensions sought by contractors amounted to 65.8% of planned schedules. The cumulative averages were found to be a couple of points lower than last year, reflecting the addition of more than 200 projects up to mid-July 2025, the firm said.
Further analysis of the dataset revealed more significant progress over time, based on a comparison of these multi-year projects by their scheduled end dates. The firm said that projects were categorised in five-year time periods according to their known scheduled completion dates.
HKA also found that the most common causes of claims and disputes has generally seen a decline in their impact, particularly in the last five years. The firm said projects that were due to complete in 2020 or later saw some factors fall by a third or more for design, change in scope and other factors (failures in contract management and administration or poor management of subcontractors). Exceptions to the trend include cashflows and payments and the COVID-19 pandemic – the latter’s impact peaked as claims and disputes were realised, the company outlined.
In terms of savings in time and money, the analysis revealed that claims for extensions of time were shorter by more than 20 percentage points, as the global average fell to less than half (49%) of planned schedules. Claimed costs also fell by around three points (to less than 28% of budgets) for affected contracts, with wider regional variations. That said, the firm said caution is necessary in interpreting the results taking into consideration the smaller number and ongoing nature of the megaprojects.
On the topic of variations, HKA said important differences were observed across regions. For the MEA region they were found to be:
Middle East: Despite having the most pandemic-related disputes, and persistently high conflict over payments, there were big reductions in schedule overruns and disputed costs Africa: Restrictions on site access, payment issues, and various contract-centric claims have risen, but there were sharp drops in disputes over late approvals and total sums claimed Asia: Along with disruption due to COVID-19, late approvals surged to affect more than 26% of projects, and clashes over contract interpretation also rose“It is very encouraging to report our evidence that many types of disputes are afflicting a smaller proportion of projects in recent years – and the impact on outcomes, especially programmes, may be easing. We cautiously welcome this progress, but as CRUX Insight makes clear, it is not universal. Some regions, sectors, and causal factors buck this apparently positive trend, and our analysis shows how many dispute drivers are magnified on megaprojects. This is why this report again shares our experts’ insights and advice to propel further improvements in project planning, procurement and execution,” said Renny Borhan, Partner and CEO of HKA.
The Eighth Annual CRUX Insight Report can be downloaded here.
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