James E. Burckhard, P.E./N.C.E.E has over 38 years of structural design and evaluations. He started his own structural firm, Metro Structural Consultants, in May of 1982. Since that time the firm has provided structural services on projects totaling 2.7 billion dollars worth of construction projects. Presently, Mr. Burckhard provides investigation and design of structural components. For over 30 years he served as president and owner of Metro Structural Consultants in Hurst, Texas. He managed an office of fourteen employees, providing structural engineering services on a wide variety of projects. Some of the more unusual projects were the design of a vehicle ramp for jumping automobiles, an aluminum portable tower for seismic monitoring in Alaska, a 490-foot guyed radio tower in Texas, and four light-gauged steel framed residences in Japan. Mr. Burckhard has provided structural design and drawings on many large residences up to 15,000 sf. He has worked on over 125 school projects and 50 church related projects. His largest school project was a $52m, 450,000-sf. high school. As principal structural engineer at MSC he designed four Pier I distribution centers, which ranged from 750,000 sf. to 950,000 sf. Mr. Burckhard has been involved in the redesign of three fire damaged structures and fifteen wind damaged structures. He recently designed the repairs for a highway billboard sign that retained the foundation and a portion of the columns, allowing the sign to remain in the Grandfather Clause.