Claims & Delay Analysis
Concurrent Delay
Concurrent delay occurs when two or more independent delay events -- typically one caused by the owner and one caused by the contractor -- affect the critical path at the same time, complicating who is entitled to time and money.
Definition
True concurrent delay requires that both delaying events independently affect the critical path over the same period, and that each, on its own, would have caused the same delay to the finish date. It matters because contract entitlement often differs depending on the cause of delay: an owner-caused delay may support a time extension and costs, a contractor-caused delay may not, and many contracts and jurisdictions treat genuinely concurrent delay as excusable but non-compensable -- time extended, but no delay costs recovered for that overlapping period. Distinguishing real concurrency from delays that merely overlap in calendar time but don't both independently drive the critical path is one of the more contested areas of forensic schedule analysis, and it depends entirely on being able to show, activity by activity, what was actually driving the finish date during the disputed window.
Example
During the same three-week window, an owner-caused design change delays a critical mechanical activity while, separately, the contractor's own late equipment delivery delays a different critical activity -- both independently capable of causing the same three-week slip, making this a textbook concurrent-delay scenario to untangle.