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The 14-storey Radio Network building - Source: ONE News -
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Gates and cordons are beginning to go up around the earthquake-damaged Christchurch building which will be demolished by implosion tomorrow.
The 14-storey Radio Network building will hit the ground just after 8am as the first to be imploded in New Zealand.
The site is being kept clear today as international demolition experts lay 63 kilograms of explosives inside the building.
Watch a live stream of the implosion on onenews.co.nz tomorrow at 8am.
Six year-old Queenstown cancer patient Jayden Halliwell will push the button which will bring the building down.
The Christchurch Earthquake Recovery Authority said if this implosion is successful other buildings may be demolished the same way, because it is faster and cheaper.
The man in charge of the operation, Mark Loizeaux, has imploded the world's largest and tallest buildings, but said the demolition of this one has been the biggest challenge yet.
"If we can do in this country, what we've done all over the world and make demolition safer, make it faster, make it more cost effective, less of an impact on the environment, shorter duration of inconvenience for people in the community, that's a privilege," he said yesterday.
Loizeaux said his company, Controlled Demolition Inc, has imploded more buildings, chimneys, towers, bridges and other structures than all its competitors combined.
He also said imploding the building was letting it go down with "a little bit of flair".
"You can beat the old lady today, you can bludgeon her with a wrecking ball, you can pick her apart with dinosaur-like machines, or you can give her one last day in the media and on the telly.
Thousands of people are expected to watch the implosion tomorrow, but authorities have advised the public to stay at home to view it.
A public exclusion zone will be in place around the implosion
site, with road closures on Madras, Gloucester and Worcester
streets.