Twinkle Toes is crunching through Christchurch's tallest demolition project.

The 208-tonne excavator with a 65-metre reach has begun taking down the 21-storey PricewaterhouseCoopers building - the city's largest by land mass.

A Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority spokesman said the ''high-reach'' demolition was the tallest in Christchurch and would take about six weeks.

The removal of the basement would follow, he said.

Work on the building began in March with the internal strip-out.

The cut-and-crane method, where pieces of the building were cut away and craned to the ground, was used to take the building down to the 14th level.

The joint venture between Arrow International, Nikau Contractors and Coleman and Company is expected to take about 40 weeks to complete.

The owners of the 22-year-old building decided it was not feasible to repair after it suffered earthquake damage last year.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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