Must confess considering the airport railway station serves every major City/Town across 50% of England you would have thought a bit more publicity would have been in the offing ?
Closure notices
On TfGM home page
Pages - Transport for Greater Manchester
On TPE site
Manchester Airport Improvements - First TransPennine Express
On Northern Rail posted 17/11/2014
Northern Rail - News - Manchester Airport engineering work - Saturday 17 January to Sunday 8 February 2015
On National Rail Website
National Rail Enquiries - Future Engineering Works
Plenty of posters in and around Manchester stations; special timetables readily available at stations across the NW
R2 and 5live travel bulletins would be a good start !
They have to sift the priority travel news to fit the limited time slot - and they specialise in real time ad hoc problems rather than planned disruption unless time permits.
Come back and moan if you don't hear about it when the work is actually in progress.