Christchurch earthquake: Hotel going down bit by bit to save neighbours

The Hotel Grand Chancellor will be taken down bit by bit. Photo / Sarah Ivey

One of the tallest buildings in central Christchurch is to be demolished bit by bit from the top down.

The 26-storey Hotel Grand Chancellor was on the verge of collapsing after it moved about 1m horizontally during the February 22 earthquake.

Demolition was inevitable and yesterday Usar engineer Carl Deveraux said it was likely to be pulled down floor by floor in a bid to save buildings around it.

"Our engineers and contractors have been working to stabilise that building. The engineers have come up with a design to concrete case the damaged columns in the basement.

"There is further work going to start on Monday. Some steel jackets are going to be placed around further damaged columns in higher storeys and that is largely to stabilise the building and keep it from collapsing."

Mr Deveraux said the work was being done to stabilise the building so it could be demolished safely.

"To provide some protection to the buildings around it ... that will allow us to deconstruct it and my understanding is that will be done floor by floor."

He said as the building was stabilised it became stronger and the cordon around it could be reduced, giving more access to nearby businesses.

The cordon has been reduced by a city block since stabilising work began.

"We are quite confident that the structure overall is intact and has a lot of inherent strength ... but it has to come down."

Mr Deveraux said American and German demolition experts would visit the hotel and help with the demolition plan. Explosives would not be used to topple the building.

"You've got to provide protection to all these buildings around it. There's buildings either side that just aren't damaged at all and you can't afford to take all those down at the same time.

"It will be slow. Hence we're bringing in some experts from overseas to see how it can be taken down quicker."

No timeframe had been set for the demolition.

It's a work in progress and it is going to take a while to get all that stabilising work in place."