Scrutinizing the Adoption of Integrated Project Delivery in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Construction Sector

The Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) approach has been acquiring applause worldwide attributable to its certified and attested outcomes in efficiently sharing threats and costs confronting the construction project. Regardless of its popularity and rationality, no substantial studies have been conducted into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s (KSA) construction. Hence, the novelty of this paper is probing the Saudi Arabia government tender process and procurement regulation for IPD theme deployment, reliant on a thorough literature assessment to bestow construction parties with the barriers of incorporating the IPD paradigm in KSA. The research objectives are attained via a questionnaire survey steered toward (1) pondering respondents’ cognizance of IPD eventuality and deployment in the KSA’s construction sector, (2) stipulating the survey’s participants’ preparedness for IPD implementation in KSA’s construction market, (3) specifying the project phase in which the contractor should be entangled as part of the IPD method, and (4) scrutinizing the respondents’ knowledge to classify the anticipated barriers to IPD from the global market in KSA. Findings unearth that the KSA construction sector still entails being more conscientious and adequate, pointing out the difficulties triggered by a dearth of awareness, apprehension, and pragmatic implementation. Further, respondents showed impartiality towards construction project stakeholders’ prescience and exuberance, the existing government procurement and tendering laws, and revolutionary technological infrastructure and competency for IPD implementations in the KSA construction industry. Additionally, the contractor should be implicated and embroiled in the construction project from the early design phase. Addedly, the hurdles to deploying IPD in KSA are ranked as follows: technological, knowledge, financial, legal, and cultural barriers.