The site where the Copthorne Hotel in Christchurch once stood is expected to be cleared by the end of the month.
Demolition of the 14-floor hotel on Durham Street was completed on Monday.
High winds last Friday had delayed the work.
Leighs Construction managing director Anthony Leighs says instead of carting the rubble away to a landfill, nearly all of the hotel's structure will be crushed and used to fill in the basement.
"The figures are close on identical, I think there were about 2800 cubic metres of concrete in the hotel structure and I think the void left by the basement is about 2500 cubic metres," he says.
Mr Leighs says six workers and a 135 foot demolition excavator, brought in from the United States, brought the building down.