MINNEAPOLIS — Fresh off approval by Minnesota regulators, officials with Enbridge Energy said Friday they’re on track to finish construction and put the company’s disputed Line 3 replacement crude oil pipeline into service in the second half of next year, assuming all goes well for them.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on Thursday determined the project is necessary and approved the Canadian company’s preferred route across northern Minnesota, with modifications and conditions that Enbridge considers minor.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Guy Jarvis, president of Enbridge’s Liquids Pipelines division, said the approval is “not the end of the process, it’s the ramping up of a lot of other work.”

Jarvis said that work includes securing at least 29 state, local and federal permits. That process and further proceedings before the Public Utilities Commission could take until October, he said. Once those hurdles are cleared, he said, the company could start work in November to get mobilized for “significant construction” to begin early in 2019.

Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton said those permit approvals “are by no means assured” and that state agencies will hold the company to “Minnesota’s highest standards” for protecting its environment, natural resources and cultural heritage.