Evaluating the Impact Level of Design Errors in Structural and Other Building Components in Building Construction Projects in Cambodia

Design errors are unavoidable in any construction projects and can negatively affect cost, schedule and safety performance. The different types of design drawings may have various levels of design errors due to many factors such as unclear overview of the designs, lack of coordination process, and human mistakes. Civil engineers, both designers and contractors, have limited understanding of the importance of design errors that occur in construction phases. This paper attempts to evaluate the impact level of groups of design errors in structural and other building components and also the impact level of their cases which occur in building construction projects in Cambodia. Respondents were asked to provide the impact score for design errors based on the five-point Likert scale, ranked from 1-negligible to 5-disastrous. The average impact score was determined in order to rank the impact of design errors. As a result, design errors in structural and mechanical works are found as the first group to be focused due to its impact, followed by design errors in structural and plumbing works. The top three cases under the group of design errors in structural and mechanical works are those in reinforced concrete walls and lift systems, footing and lift systems, and slab and HVAC systems. These results are significant for engineers to be aware of the possible high impact of design errors, and also to determine which group of design errors should be considered first. Further studies should look at the combination of such occurrence and impact of design errors in order to efficiently identify the most critical and significant design errors in terms of not only their impact, but also their occurrence in building construction projects.