A THREE-year programme of building will be required to complete the proposed new Specialist and Critical Care Centre for Gwent.

Late 2017 is the latest estimated completion date for the £273 million project on the site of the former Llanfrechfa Grange Hospital, subject to Planning permission and the approval of outline and full business cases by the Welsh government.

An exhibition at the Grange’s main recreation hall this week provides details of different aspects of the 450- bed scheme, the centrepiece of hospital modernisation plans for Gwent.

The hospital is set to be built to the west of the existing listed Grange building and will be up to six storeys high, though that will not a uniform height.

It will have a 999 road for ambulances, and a road into a large car park for visitors, both reached off a new roundabout to be built on the B4236 Caerleon Road, between the existing A4042 roundabout near Gwent Police headquarters and the current entrance road to the Llanfrechfa Grange site.

The lay of the land means cuttings will need to be created for both roads.

A helipad for air ambulance take-off and landings is also proposed, near the emergency ambulance entrance to the hospital building.

Currently, a separate staff entrance - further down the B4236 - and car park is proposed, though the layout of car parks and roads may be altered.

Preserving asmuch of the semi-rural nature of the site means that as many trees as possible will be retained, and a bat roost - for which planning permission already exists - will be built to cater for the needs of a rare species that currently occupies the Grange building.

This building is likely to be used as an administration facility.

Planning permission will be submitted to Torfaen council in July and a decision is expected in November.