Today, March 25, Energy Transfer received approval of the waivers submitted to the Department of Community and Economic Development through the process outlined by the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As a result, we are now clear to resume the construction activity outlined in our waiver requests at 17 sites. Fifteen of these sites are associated with our Mariner East project. The waivers were requested to ensure the continued safety, integrity and stabilization of these construction sites.
Included in today’s approvals are a mix of partially completed horizontal directional drills (HDDs), road bores and open excavation sites across the commonwealth. We currently have no remaining waiver requests pending and we remain shut down at all other construction sites.
Today’s approval is in addition to the activities we resumed on March 24. Those activities include monitoring and maintaining the rights-of-way and work sites associated with our construction projects in Pennsylvania, including Mariner East 2. In addition, we will continue to secure, stabilize and move equipment at these sites under the enhanced safety measures Gov. Wolf implemented on March 19.
As for the remainder of our construction activity that is temporarily halted, we remain engaged with our regulators, such as the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), to ensure that all of our sites are maintained in accordance with our existing permits. We will continue to engage with local stakeholders to share available updates.
The safety of our employees, pipeline workers and the communities where we work and operate remains our top priority during this critical time. As we communicated previously, our pipeline systems and facilities that are in service have been deemed life-sustaining activities and will continue to safely operate. We are also continuing maintenance work on these assets.
As noted, we have updated our protocols to remain diligent in keeping our employees, contractors and community residents safe and healthy while working on our property and within our pipeline rights-of-way.
All of our employees and contractors have been directed to continue compliance with social distancing and other mitigation measures as directed by the CDC, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Pennsylvania Department of Health.