An inner-city bus station built just over five years ago is about to collapse because of shoddy construction.

Signs reading "Keep out" and "Building may collapse at any time" were recently hung on the front of the East Bus Station in Yantai, East China's Shandong province.

The station, which opened its doors in July 2004, was taken out of service earlier this year.

Video broadcast by China Central Television showed steel bars in load-bearing walls rusted away to powder. Pieces of cement were falling off the walls and long cracks could be seen everywhere in the 20,000-sq-m four-story building.

"The quality appraisal report found the steel bars were seriously corroded, which could lead to the collapse of the whole building at any moment," Chen Peihe, security head of the station, was quoted as saying.

ieces of cement fell off the ceiling in the waiting room, injuring two passengers, he said.

"Such a serious quality problem in a public facility shocks me. I hope authorities find out the reason behind this and seriously punish the officials responsible," said Hao Ning, a citizen living near the station.

The 28-year-old said she went to the bus station two years ago and now realizes she was in danger while staying in the waiting hall.

Fingers have been pointed at the bidding system, the construction process and the supervision as possible culprits.

The nearly 40-million-yuan (S$8.12 million) station was co-funded by private enterprise Yantai Transport Development Company and the Yantai transport bureau, Fu Zhiliang, general manager of the station and the legal representative of the company, was quoted as saying.

Fu alleged the open bid for the station's construction was just for show, as bureau director Quan Liangbao maintained the village-run enterprise Qingquan Construction Company should "win" the bidding.

"The director made a phone call to me during the bidding. We had to obey him and make Qingquan the contractor," he said.

However Mou Zhiyong, information office director of the city government, believes otherwise.

"A preliminary investigation found any problems in the bidding, construction and supervision process have nothing to do with him," Mou said.

He was also quick to defuse a rumor that Quan had committed suicide.

The station's construction was launched in 2001. The project's supervisor, Yantai First Construction Supervision Company, did not find any problems during construction, Fu said.

When construction finished in 2004, the quality report showed the project reached the required standards.

"The city government has urged local bureaus to thoroughly and timely investigate the case and punish those responsible," Mou said yesterday.

After the station was put into operation, construction quality disputes arose between the investor and the contractor that are still before the Yantai Intermediate People's Court, Mou said.

Besides serious corrosion of steel bars, a large quantity of construction waste was also found in the building's insulating layer, according to an appraisal by the provincial academy of building research.

"The quality problems in the building are very serious and very uncommon. It's extremely urgent for authorities to take action," said the academy's new appraisal report released in February.

But not everyone is surprised and concerned about the crumbling building.

"Those kinds of problems with construction are common here," said citizen Chi Huqing. "It's no big deal."

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