Australia flooding halts construction work

Australian contractor Leighton Holdings has ceased operations on its largest infrastructure project in flood-hit Queensland, while a number of its other operations have been affected by the extreme conditions.

Leighton said work has ceased on the US$ 4 billion Brisbane airport link, a tunnelled motorway under construction in the northern suburbs of the city.

CEO David Stewart said staff were currently working to protect project works and equipment.

"To date the central part of the project, located at Kedron and Toombul, has been the main area impacted by the wet weather. We expect that a number of offices and some sections of the project will suffer inundation over the next 24 hours," Mr Stewart said.

Leighton - a subsidiary of German construction company Hochtief - also said that some of its contract mining activities in Queensland had been impacted by the flooding.

The company said any material impact to its full year earnings would be determined over the coming weeks.