\n As previously reported, Bolt of Lightning will be built close to junction eight of the motorway as the centre point of Mountpark roundabout, within Omega South on Skyline Drive in Warrington.\n<\/p>\n
\n The highlight of the art piece will be an iconic Second World War American aircraft \u2013 the Lockheed P-38 Lightning \u2013 which would be illuminated and bathed in wartime searchlights at night.\n<\/p>\n
\n The sculpture will honour RAF Burtonwood airbase, with many warehouses and homes in the Omega vicinity \u2013 and the M62 itself \u2013 built on land formerly occupied by the base.\n<\/p>\n
\n It will measure 22.8 metres, making it larger than the Angel of the North near Newcastle.\n<\/p>\n
\n Work began on the structure earlier this year, with the main piece being fabricated in Hull and transported to the site in sections.\n<\/p>\n
\n Warrington Borough Council previously published a road closure notice for Skyline Drive, from its junctions with Burtonwood Road and Fairchild Road, to allow for the installation of the art sculpture.\n<\/p>\n
\n This was from July 25 for a period of four days, but the closure was pushed back due to \u2018unforeseen circumstances\u2019.\n<\/p>\n
\n Now, a new date has been fixed for September 12 for three consecutive nights between 7pm and 7am, as well as on September 22.\n<\/p>\n
\n This will be as and when signed on site, with access under the control of the relevant contractor for the duration of the works.\n<\/p>\n
\n The alternative route will be via Burtonwood Road, Whittle Avenue, Lingley Green Avenue, Omega Boulevard, Skyline Drive, and vice versa.\n<\/p>\n
\n During the earlier planning phase, it was said that the long-term vision has always been to install an \u2018iconic and major piece of public art\u2019 to celebrate the history of RAF Burtonwood.\n<\/p>\n
\n The airbase opened in 1939, just in time for the crucial Battle of Britain, and it played a vital support role for the war in Europe when the United States Air Force took over in 1942.\n<\/p>\n
\n The site also played a vital role in the Berlin Airlift of 1948 and throughout the Cold War era.\n<\/p>\n
\n In 1967, Burtonwood became the largest US base in Europe, having expanded to cover a 15-mile site between 1948 and 1958, but once the US Army pulled out of the base in 1993, its fate was effectively sealed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As previously reported, Bolt of Lightning will be built close to junction eight of the motorway as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3939],"tags":[4021,4020,4022,77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-331340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-design","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115000557183562744","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}