Building exec: Rebuild could cost $5bn more than forecast

Cleaning up silt in Christchurch after the earthquake. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The cost of rebuilding Christchurch could exceed Treasury predictions by $5 billion, a Fletcher Building executive has estimated.

The company's infrastructure chief executive Mark Binns told Radio New Zealand this morning his rough calculations put the Christchurch earthquake repair bill at $20 billion.

That exceeds a Treasury forecast showing the earthquake costing up to $15 billion and knocking New Zealand's gross domestic product back by 1.5 per cent this year.

Mr Binns said he had been amazed by the scale of the damage the February 22 earthquake had inflicted on Christchurch city centre and its eastern suburbs.

It would require a massive international effort to rebuild the city, he said.

"It is a sobering and humbling experience to see the devastation. The magnitude of the damage compared to the last quake is just an order of magnitude more. It's a game-changer and needs a rethink."

That massive damage meant there would be a "significant margin of error" in the Treasury cost forecasts, he said.

The informal estimates he had written put the cost at $20 billion.

He said Fletcher Building was likely to need to import workers from around the world for its part of the repair job.

They would add to what was already a desperate and widespread need for temporary accommodation in the city.

"After the first quake we thought we might be able to do all the work with Canterbury people. That has definitely changed. Now it's just a question of how far afield we have to go."

He was sure repair work could begin more quickly than after the original 7.1 magnitude September 4 earthquake.

The Earthquake Commission (EQC) already had large staff numbers in their offices to deal with that quake and many jobs were already under way, he said.

"This time round clearly some lessons have probably been learnt in how to speed the work up."

- NZHERALD STAFF