{"id":70588,"date":"2025-08-16T06:01:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T06:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/70588\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T06:01:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T06:01:19","slug":"new-date-for-raf-burtonwood-bolt-of-lightning-sculpture-beside-m62-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/70588\/","title":{"rendered":"New date for RAF Burtonwood Bolt of Lightning sculpture beside M62"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\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<p>\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<p>\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<p>\n  It will measure 22.8 metres, making it larger than the Angel of the North near Newcastle.\n<\/p>\n<p>\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<p>\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<p>\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<p>\n  MORE NEWS:\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chesterstandard.co.uk\/news\/25378488.firefighters-called-incident-outside-vacant-city-centre-pub\/?rel=cl_lsa\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Firefighters called to incident outside vacant city centre pub<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chesterstandard.co.uk\/news\/25378477.firefighters-called-4-vehicle-crash-major-round-chester\/?rel=cl_lsa\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Firefighters called to 4 vehicle crash at major round about in Chester<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chesterstandard.co.uk\/news\/25374505.major-investment-made-new-homes-development-planned-cheshire-town\/?rel=cl_lsa\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Major investment to be made as new homes development planned for Cheshire town<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\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<p>\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<p>\n  The alternative route will be via Burtonwood Road, Whittle Avenue, Lingley Green Avenue, Omega Boulevard, Skyline Drive, and vice versa.\n<\/p>\n<p>\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<p>\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<p>\n  The site also played a vital role in the Berlin Airlift of 1948 and throughout the Cold War era.\n<\/p>\n<p>\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&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-70588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}