By Kloe Palmer
A massive deconstruction machine, said to be third biggest in the world, has started bringing down buildings in what was Christchurch's CBD.
The custom built giant digger was shipped from England to help demolish damaged buildings faster.
Despite being called "twinkle toes", the monster’s 65 metre high claw chews through concrete like no other.
“On a 14 story block of flats, this one will take 40 hours, a normal machine with a 45 metre reach will take anything up to three weeks,” says operator Bill Robinson.
It cost around $4 million, weighs over 200 tonnes, arrived in 8 pieces and took 5 days to put together.
Twinkle toes is Bill Robinson’s baby and he came with it from England to teach a local demolition team how to operate it.
The machine is custom built and reaches so high the cab tilts back. It's also equipped with video cameras on it's claw allowing the operator to see what he's destroying.
Twinkle toes can bring down a 22 story building, and when it’s when finished on its current building her owners want to challenge her on some of the CBD’s taller buildings awaiting demolition.
3 News
source: newshub archive
