NEW deals worth £1.8 million are keeping staff at a Warrington groundwork and drainage specialist busy this winter.

Gatewarth-based Wilkinson Special Projects have secured an £800,000 contract to start the preliminaries for a seven-storey apartment complex in Bolton for Gleeson Homes.

Engineers will only have five months to renovate existing retaining walls and build a steel frame for the development - as well as a piling to support a three-metre high basement car park.

The 200-strong firm has also scooped a £1 million project for Morris Homes which will see the Sankey outfit provide roads, sewers and drains for a residential estate at New Mills, Derbyshire.

Company director Andy Tomkins said: "The customers involved in both these new projects came to us because of our track record and extensive experience."