10 November 2011

Copthorne Hotel Durham Street down in days

Five days is all it has taken to raze one of Christchurch’s largest hotels.

Mackay Leighs Demolition Ltd is more than half way through the structural demolition of the 14-floor Copthorne Hotel Durham Street.

Structural deconstruction work started on the Kilmore, Victoria, Durham St site at the edge of the Red Zone on Monday and by the close of Friday, the building will be gone, said Anthony Leighs, managing director Leighs Construction Ltd.

“We have six people on the site and we are using the 135 foot high reach demolition excavator which we imported from the United States. We started on Monday afternoon and by the end of Friday the building will be gone.”

Leighs Construction Ltd formed a joint venture company with American demolition company Grant Mackay earlier this year, and is managing the demolition of several large buildings in the CBD.

Anthony Leighs said the Copthorne Durham was operational after the September earthquake but seriously damaged in February. It was further damaged in the recent 5.5 after shock and more stabilisation of the building had been required, he said.

The concrete structure, built in the 1980s, with exterior concrete cladding, was a conventional multi-storey building of its time.

ENDS

© Scoop Media