Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust chief Steve Warbuton has confirmed the project will now cost around £585m to complete almost double the original £335m budget.

He revealed the scale of the challenge ahead in an update to the already delayed 646-bed hospital which under main contractor Carillion had been due to open in March 2017.

Laing O’Rourke is now on board to deliver the complex hospital project where major structural flaws have been uncovered, and three of 11 floors require strengthening.

Cladding on the build is also defective and needs to be replaced.

The focus of work is presently on completing these remedial works to install 165 tonnes of new fabricated steelwork to strengthen cracked beams.

Many of the 140 contract packages have been approved with subcontractors Heyrods, AG Fixings, Allied Scaffold, Astins, Western Thermal, FB Taylor and Wandsworth deployed on the site.

How the delayed project should look once finished