America\'s largest ever sandstone restoration project has moved to a second, critical phase and the British stone company Realstone have been selected to mastermind the work.

Chesterfield-based Realstone have won the contract to source and shape the stone pinnacles and carvings on the upper half of the north tower of the cathedral in Albany, New York State, as well as the west side clerestories, walls and parapets.

Realstone\'s Beestone has been chosen for the project. It comes from a Cumbrian quarry and a dozen banker masons will work the blocks at the company\'s three sites at Penrith, Scotland and Chesterfield, assisted by the use of CAD/CAM profiling machines.

Realstone have already supplied more than 510m3 of Beestone for the first phase of the restoration of the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception. British stone masons visited the site to advise on the installation and dressing of the blocks used in the lower parts of the tower.

The second phase, £1/2million contract of the 15-year project has been secured by Realstone, whose sandstone is proving a close match to the original Portland Connecticut material.

The Americans have also asked for a greater input from the skilled British stone masons because, as the restoration work continues up the tower, the intricacies of the carving increase dramatically.

The new contract at Albany completed a successful year for Realstone in the US market. In Vermont, the same Beestone was used for a prestigious new build contract at the Burlington Science Centre at Lake Champlain.

Two container loads of the stone were transported to the US for this £70,000 contract.

The success at Burlington led to a second order down the road in Colchester, Vermont, where another red sandstone will be used in a £100,000 project at St Michael\'s College.

Other contracts have been sort for the Newport mansions at Boston and for the Bedford Armoury. Further orders are anticipated following the appointment of New Jersey-based Pasvalco as an approved agent for Realstone.

"We are delighted by the in-roads into the United States stone market," said Realstone managing director Andrew Gregory."We have a wide range of stones from our 11 UK quarrries and a team of experienced stone masons to provide consultancy services on both high profile restoration projects and new stone developments."This expertise is increasingly required in America, but we remain strongly committed to the UK and European markets where we continue to win major contracts as far flung as Glasgow and Prague."