Construction of Royal Dutch Shell plc’s multi-billion dollar ethane cracker in western Pennsylvania is about 70% complete, while the 98-mile pipeline system that would feed the facility is 95% complete, a company executive said Tuesday, noting that the Covid-19 pandemic has complicated the project.

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“All of the major equipment is up, all of the modules that have been built around the world both in the U.S. and overseas have been placed on the site,” said Hilary Mercer, vice president of Pennsylvania Chemicals for Shell Polymers. “So, what remains is to join those things together, to weld everything together, and to pull the electrical cables and instrument cables in order to allow us to liven up the facility.”

The facility, the first of its kind to be built in the...