New Jersey Ceases Work on Non-Essential Construction Projects to Prevent Coronavirus Spread

TRENTON, NJ—New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced on Wednesday that all non-essential construction work is to cease on Friday, April 10 at 8 p.m. as a means to limit the spread of COVID-19

The new Executive Order (No. 122) will shut down most of the private construction projects in the Garden State. The order also mandated specific protections and policies for all essential retail, manufacturing, and warehousing businesses, as well as businesses engaged in essential construction projects.

“We must continue to work together to flatten the curve of new COVID-19 cases in New Jersey,” said Gov. Murphy. “By ceasing all non-essential construction projects and imposing additional mitigation requirements on essential businesses, we are furthering our aggressive efforts to enforce social distancing and limiting our public interactions to only the most essential in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19.”

Neighboring New York State ordered the shutdown of all non-essential construction projects on March 27.

The state deems “essential construction projects” to include the following:

• Projects necessary for the delivery of health care services, including but not limited to hospitals, other health care facilities, and pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities.

• Transportation projects, including roads, bridges, and mass transit facilities or physical infrastructure, including work done at airports or seaports.

• Utility projects, including those necessary for energy and electricity production and transmission, and any decommissioning of facilities used for electricity generation.

• Residential projects that are exclusively designated as affordable housing.

• Projects involving pre-K-12 schools, including but not limited to projects in Schools Development Authority districts, and projects involving higher education facilities.

• Projects already underway involving individual single-family homes, or an individual apartment unit where an individual already resides, with a construction crew of 5 or fewer individuals. This includes additions to single-family homes such as solar panels.

• Projects already underway involving a residential unit for which a tenant or buyer has already entered into a legally binding agreement to occupy the unit by a certain date, and construction is necessary to ensure the unit’s availability by that date.

• Projects involving facilities at which any one or more of the following takes place: the manufacture, distribution, storage, or servicing of goods or products that are sold by online retail businesses or essential retail businesses, as defined by Executive Order No. 107 (2020) and subsequent Administrative Orders adopted pursuant to that Order.

• Projects involving data centers or facilities that are critical to a business’s ability to function.

• Projects necessary for the delivery of essential social services, including homeless shelters.

• Any project necessary to support law enforcement agencies or first responder units in their response to the COVID-19 emergency. Any project that is ordered or contracted for by Federal, State, county, or municipal government, or any project that must be completed to meet a deadline established by the Federal government.