Contractors are due to begin installing new 'superspan' gantries as part of the M62 Manchester smart motorway project.

Three giant overhead gantries are being installed during this month, which will carry message and variable speed limit signs.

Work to erect two 'superspan' gantries will take place tonight, 02 June and Friday, 03 June.

Each 78-tonne structure will be installed by a 500-tonne crane and span both the eastbound and westbound carriageways of the motorway.

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When completed, the smart motorways project will feature around 200 electronic message signs on overhead gantries warning drivers of speed limit changes, lane closures and incidents ahead.

Highways England project manager Stef Wilson said: "We started work on installing the new gantries last month and it's going smoothly. It's a very big job that calls for night closures in both directions, but then they're very big structures. You really get a sense of their size when they are on the ground waiting to go up."

The smart motorway project is due to be completed in autumn 2017.

(LM)