Awning’s Fall Prompts Review of City Codes : Safety: Building department is looking at inspection requirements in wake of collapse at shopping center, where several people narrowly escaped injury.

Two and a half months after a concrete and metal department-store awning collapsed in a busy shopping center, the San Diego building department is considering changes in its procedures and code requirements to help prevent similar accidents.

On June 15, the 2-ton awning above an entrance to the Robinson’s department store at University Towne Centre in La Jolla crashed onto the sidewalk, narrowly missing several lunchtime shoppers.

An investigation revealed that a faulty welding job was the cause of the accident, but city officials have not been able to determine whether that work had been inspected and, if so, who the inspector was, said Pete Lopez, the city’s chief of structural inspection.

In a memo sent to City Council members earlier this month, Deputy City Manager Severo Esquivel said building department officials were looking into making changes as a result of their investigation.

“The Building Inspection Department is considering changes in procedures or changes in code requirements that will provide better control of the work being inspected by special inspectors who are employed by building owners,” the Aug. 14 memo says. “A report with a recommendation on this matter will be submitted to council.”

On most large commercial construction projects such as the Robinson’s store, codes require the company that owns the property to hire a special inspector to oversee work daily, Lopez said. These inspectors are certified by the city but are not city employees, he said.

The special inspectors submit many progress reports on a project, but city officials could not find any of those reports in the building department’s file after the accident, Lopez said.

Ordinarily, the inspectors file reports with the city every two weeks as a project progresses, plus a final report, Lopez said.

But the inspection records for the Robinson’s, built in 1977, were apparently lost or misfiled, Lopez said.

Neither Esquivel nor Richard Christopherson, the city’s director of building inspection, would comment on specific changes the department is considering.

But Esquivel said both the inspection process and the building department’s record-keeping procedures are subject to scrutiny.

“We need to take a look at our record-keeping,” Esquivel said. “Obviously, this person who did the (Robinson’s) inspection missed some things, so we’re concerned with the inspection process itself.”

Christopherson did not say what the investigation had revealed that prompted his department to consider the changes.

The building department is scheduled to report on the awning collapse to the city’s Public Services and Safety Committee on Sept. 5.