Wellington, Sept 8 NZPA - Construction and civil engineering contractor Fulton Hogan says its focus is on emergency work in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake and it is inappropriate to draw economic conclusions about the situation.

The privately owned Christchurch-based company has existing contracts with both Christchurch City Council and the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) so was among the first to respond to the magnitude 7.1 earthquake which struck at 4.35am on Saturday.

Fulton Hogan New Zealand contracting chief executive Bill Perry said the earthquake was a pretty significant tragedy for Christchurch and the company's 500-plus staff in the city were affected.

"We were on the ground within half an hour of the earthquake and had people at the airport assessing the runway within an hour or two," he said.

The first response was traffic management. A large team was also working with the council and NZTA to assess damage and help develop engineering solutions.

"That's really the focus at the moment. It is very much assessment and inspection and where possible emergency work to get roads open and also clean up."

Sub-contractors were very important at this time, he said. When needed the company would bring in staff and equipment from other offices.

Mr Perry said it was inappropriate and far too early to speculate about work flow for construction companies from the disaster.

It was likely money would be reprioritised from other areas.

The company's Christchurch Southern Motorway extension project was back on line and was progressing.

At a cost of $140m the extension is designed to improve access to Christchurch International Airport, Lyttelton Port and the central city.

The company said in a recent newsletter that at its peak 150 staff will be involved in the project, which starts with an airport route with four lanes in Russley and Johns Roads.

Fulton Hogan started from humble beginnings in 1933 and now employs 5500 people in New Zealand and Australia. Its corporate head office moved from Dunedin to Christchurch in 2001.

The company won the Deloitte/Management Magazine Top 200 Award in 2002.