Today, Mayor Kenney signed an emergency order prohibiting non-essential business operations within the City of Philadelphia. You can read the full order here.

Essential activities are described as including construction for:

i. All medical, pharmaceutical, and healthcare facilities (including non-emergency construction)

ii. All emergency projects or other projects deemed essential by the City of Philadelphia, while appropriately balancing public safety, to ensure the continued delivery of critical infrastructure services and functions by the City (“City Essential Infrastructure Projects”)

iii. Emergency repairs for “Residential Building Construction,” “Nonresidential Building Construction,” “Utility Subsystem Construction” (related buildings and structures for utilities, i.e., water, sewer, petroleum, gas, power, and communication, and all structures that are integral parts of utility systems); “Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction,” “Other Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction,” “Other Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction,” “Foundation, Structure, and Building Exterior Contractors,” Building Equipment Contractors,” “Building Finishing Contractors,” and “Other Specialty Trade Contractors”

As it relates to non-essential construction, the order provides:

Operators of non-life sustaining, non-emergency construction in Philadelphia shall have until 5:00 p.m. on March 27, 2020, to make construction sites safe and secure. Contractors are directed to take proper measures to protect adjacent properties, remove or fasten items that are or could become loose, secure sites against trespass, and complete work necessary to protect and ensure the structural integrity of buildings under construction. Occupied residential properties must be left in safe and habitable condition.

Please do not hesitate to call on the Stradley Ronon Construction Group for assistance regarding these issues.