Hawkins counts the construction cost of quake

The control tower at the refurbished Christchurch International Airport. Photo / Supplied

Hawkins Construction, the country's second-largest builder with some of the largest new building contracts in Christchurch, is today counting the cost of yesterday's earthquake.

Chris Hunter, chief executive of the McConnell-owned business, was preparing to leave Auckland this morning and visit his firm's sites.

"We were lucky, the staff are OK. Only one got a minor knock but given the work we were doing....a lot of our guys were helping last night," a worried Hunter said.

"Our guys worked overnight to get the airport safe and up and running," he said.

Hawkins was almost finished building Christchurch International Airport's domestic terminal building, the main gateway for international guests arriving in the South Island.

Hawkins won the $115m construction project for an integrated terminal, due for total completion in May 2012.

But now the domestic terminal has suffered damage and Hunter said Hawkins staff needed to do a full assessment.

Before the quake, passengers were walking through the hi-spec shiny almost-finished new domestic terminal structure to exit the old domestic terminal and get to the airport's carparking building.

Finishing work was under way there, after Hawkins built the distinctive new control tower.

But Hunter said this morning he was concerned about the terminal job and his firm needed to conduct a thorough audit of the new building work.

"The new terminal has damage. There's just all sorts of stuff," he said.

Hawkins also built the Christchurch Civic Building, a public/private joint venture between Christchurch City Council and Ngai Tahu Property which saw a major redevelopment of the former 1970s NZ Post Building, That new building opened in August.

Hunter was also worried about that glass tower, saying it suffered damage in September "and I'm guessing there's probably damage to it now".