Making Sense of Contractual Disruption in Large-Scale Infrastructure Projects

Abstract

When organizing large-scale infrastructure projects, contractual arrangements are key as they provide stability and a structure for coordination and responsibility. When they are disrupted, for instance through a termination, the effects go beyond formal changes and shape how projects function in practice. This thesis intends to investigate how project actors interpret such a disruption and make sense of roles, responsibilities, and collaboration in a project environment where a termination has occurred and the project is reconfigured with a new project organisation. A sensemaking lens is applied in this study, drawing on Weick et al. (2005), to examine how meaning is constructed in an ambiguous setting. A qualitative case study was conducted of the E05 Korsvägen, where a turnkey contract was terminated during the contruction phase. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect empirical data, where key actors from both client and consultant organisations took part. The findings illustrate that the contract termination was experienced as systemic organisational rupture rather than an isolated event of contractual change. It created prolonged and uneven uncertainty across the project organisation, where actors continuously interpreted their roles and the situation based on prior experiences, access to information, and their positions. The formal reconfiguration did not automatically translate to clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Instead, they were interpreted and enacted in practice, often depending on perceived capability rather than contractual definition. This thesis focuses on the more social aspect of complex project organizing and highlights how a contractual disruption leads to ongoing interpretative work rather than immediate stabilization. Changes in terms of governance alone are insufficient to restore order, as organizing depends on continuous sensemaking, interaction, and alignment across the entire project organisation.