However, Dunedin City Council staff have defended the decision, saying the move was unavoidable after an accident at the shelter earlier this year raised other concerns.
Council transportation operations programme engineer Michael Harrison confirmed a safety review had been launched after a woman fell off a large step at the shelter.
However, the review had "snowballed" by raising other questions about the structural integrity of the old concrete shelter, Mr Harrison said.
Repairing it would require further testing, a new foundation and the lowering of the shelter, as well as building consent, he said.
Instead, the council had opted to spend about $10,000 replacing it with a new glass one, rather than paying "at least twice that" to save the old one, he said.
Residents were notified last week, prompting just two phone calls to the council, and demolition was expected to take place as early as later this week, he said.
"It's a shame, but we've run out of options for what we can do with it."
Keep Dunedin Beautiful co-ordinator Darlene Thomson said the shelter had originally featured a "quite badly deteriorated" mural by artist John Noakes, but it was replaced by a new mural commissioned by the group in October last year.
