Large crane to block Wigan Lane partially as Covid-19 emergency ward work escalates

Urgent work to build a new Covid-19 ward at Wigan Infirmary will need the partial closure of the main road outside this week.
Work already under way to build a new Covid-19 ward at Wigan InfirmaryWork already under way to build a new Covid-19 ward at Wigan Infirmary
Work already under way to build a new Covid-19 ward at Wigan Infirmary

From Thursday at 10pm through to 7pm on Friday, Wigan Lane will be part-blocked by a giant crane as it lifts module components into the car park area where the emergency medical facility is being constructed at break-neck speed.

Construction workers from the Darwin Group and Ainscough Industrial Services are already on site and say that the unit - housing an extra 52 beds - will be ready for use by May 2 at the latest.

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Wrightington Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust bosses say that efforts are being made to minimise disruption, but inevitably on projects of this speed and magnitude, there has to be some.

Traffic lights will therefore be in place to allow vehicles - what few of them there are on the streets during the current lockdown - to pass one way at a time.

Wigan Infirmary is the designated Covid-19 treatment centre for the borough and is already caring for a number of patients. The latest tally of confirmed infections is 65 - having risen from 59 in the previous 24 hours.

There have been several fatalities but health chiefs have not disclosed how many locally.