Workers from Keltbray, Lendlease, Wilson James and the Royal Engineers have been tasked with creating the 2,000-space car park in just one week.

After being given the go-ahead, Keltbray had machines deployed by low loader transportation to the area on Sunday evening and had established a project team for work starting on Monday.

The Nightingale Hospital in ExCel will be capable of housing 4,000 patients suffering from Covid-19 and is expected to be operational in the coming days. Two more Nightingale Hospitals will be constructed in Birmingham and Manchester to deal with victims of the pandemic in April.

Keltbray has 20 men on site as well as machines including excavators, dumpers, rollers and bulldozers.

Large areas of vegetation were cleared at the start of the project to create a haul road and level areas for various car parks.

Main supply chain partners include Welfare Hire, Speedy, Powerday, Spadeoak. All the type one aggregate came from Stema Shipping direct from their Tilbury Docks base, with a 25,000t shipment arriving on site last Saturday before work got underway.

Keltbray executive chairman Brendan Kerr said: “We’re pleased to be able to provide our services to this important project, ensuring safe and efficient facilities for the thousands of NHS vehicles that will be needed for Nightingale Hospital. We’re all in this together and we’re proud to support the incredible work that the NHS is doing on the front line.”

In its efforts to ensure safe and smart social distancing and increased hygiene at sites, Keltbray has introduced Welfare Hire’s Eco7, Eco10 and Hybrid Lighting Tower to its Nightingale ExCel support project.

Welfare Hire, part of the Kelling Group, are the UK’s leading provider of mobile welfare facilities, with market-leading, eco-efficient and ultra-modern products. The cabins are more reliable and more environmentally friendly, as well as quicker and easier to set up.

With up to 15x lower CO₂ emissions running costs from their eco products and using the latest in on-demand start/stop hybrid smart power systems and solar, the units are also the greenest in the market, affording huge carbon and running cost savings on the job.

With limited use of modern, efficient generators owing to the smart battery power system, noise pollution is also kept to a minimum. The Hybrid Lights can run for up to 18 hrs silently and cleanly whilst the Eco units typically run off silent, clean battery energy for up to 75% of the time. This also provides benefits for working within busy and residential areas where we take into consideration noise and carbon emissions.

The self-contained mobile welfare units have the following unique attributes to help optimise hygiene and spacing onsite and provide a solution for smart and safe working:

• Unique water flush WCs and separate WC facilities
• Hot running water on demand with multiple elbow wash basins
• 50% larger water and waste tank to ensure optimum washing facilities
• Stainless steel and easy to clean surfaces
•  18% larger internal space, with larger seating and tables
• Separate WCs, office, rest and canteen spaces
• Easy to move and locate on site with up to 37% smaller footprint, allowing for strategic placement for ease of use
• Rigorous inspection and cleaning regime as part of the 62-point check before every installation