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Summary
He has a P.E., S.E., and Ph.D. with over 30 years of broad engineering experience in all aspects of the construction process: from design through construction and service. He has effectively served as an expert witness and litigation advisor on hundreds of cases in the past decade. He has advised in construction defect, building collapse, system and material failures, product liability, personal injury, construction work site injuries, multi-employer worksite matters, as well as building code compliance and insurance claims throughout the mid-Atlantic region. His expertise in structural/civil and mechanical engineering allows a broad perspective of potential matters beyond the traditional engineering solutions while bringing powerful engineering tools and concepts such as finite element methods and numerical modeling to bear on the issues at hand. He is a practicing Licensed Professional Engineer in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and Delaware, a practicing Licensed Structural Engineer in Washington, D.C., and a Model PE NCEES record holder. He is a current member of the New York City Building Code Revision Committee for 2018.

 

Academic Background
• University of Wyoming, Doctorate of Philosophy in Civil Engineering,
Structural Engineering Focus, 1999

• Kansas State University, Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering,
Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Concentration, 1990

• Kansas State University, Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering
Machine Design Emphasis, 1988

• Decatur Area Vocational Center
Building Trades Vocational Program Residential Construction,1983

 

Professional Experience

RTI Group, LLC, Annapolis, MD, Structural/Civil and Mechanical Engineer, 2018 to present

Private Engineering Company, June 2004 - Current – Principal
Practicing Engineer. Offers total design and fabrication drawings for light gage, structural
steel, and steel-concrete composite construction clients. Work includes conceptual design of midrise structures, total building design and analysis, component design and analysis, and construction-site problem solving, forensic analysis inspections, calculations and served as expert witness for construction/mechanical/structural/ and construction accident litigations.

Private Engineering Company – November 2015 to Current - Principal
Practicing Engineer. Offers total design and fabrication drawings for light gage, structural
steel, Masonry and steel-concrete composite construction clients. Work includes conceptual design of structures, total building design and analysis, component design and analysis, and construction-site problem solving. Ongoing work includes operating as EOR including Sheeting/shoring, Foundations, and Base Building Structures.

University of the District of Columbia, Aug 2015 to Current Adjunct Professor
Adjunct Professor for Department of Architecture teaching Structures to Architectural Students courses include Statics and Strength of Materials, Structural Analysis, and Structural Steel Design.

Private Engineering Company, February 2013 to Current –Forensic Structural/Civil/Mechanical Engineer
Practicing Forensic Structural/Civil/Mechanical Engineer. Conducted forensic analysis inspections, calculations and served as expert witness for construction/structural/ and construction accident litigations.  Provided expert testimony for both Plaintiff and Defense clients on a wide variety of projects ranging from trip and falls to first responder insurance inspections.

Private Engineering company, Aug 2009 to January 2012 Structural/Civil/Mechanical Engineer
Practicing Structural/Civil/Mechanical Engineer. Conducted forensic analysis inspections, calculations and served as expert witness for construction/structural/ and construction accident litigations. Provided expert testimony for both Plaintiff and Defense clients on a wide variety of projects ranging from residential inspections to multiple death construction accidents. Strengths include structural OSHA analysis, Structural Analysis, Cost Estimating, Building Code issues, Engineering design, Construction Project Management, and Accident Reconstruction. Extensively deposed and served as trial expert witness.

Engineered Framing Systems, January 2003 – June 2004 – Project Structural Engineer
Practicing Structural Engineer working in the fast paced Design-Build environment. Work is centered on light gage construction of multifamily multistory buildings. Work includes solving field issues, design of new structures, light gage and structural steel design, and concrete transfer slab design. Directed the design and the means and methods for panelized light gage multifamily structures in Maryland, New Jersey, and Massachusetts.

Theobald Bufano and Associates, April 2001 to January 2003 – Structural Engineer/Project Manager
Practicing Structural Engineer in Washington DC working for a mid size firm responsible for the structural construction phases of two significant cast in place 12 story concrete buildings, the inspection of concrete balcony repairs for major apartment complexes, the design phases of multiple smaller building rehabs, and the initial investigation of multiple feasibility studies. The construction phase work centers around fielding construction question and concerns, shop drawing evaluation and authorization, spot checking the rebar placement and inspection programs, and designing repairs for the contractor mistakes. The investigation of the balcony repairs includes the direct evaluation including sounding, observations, and physical testing of 400+ cantilevered concrete balconies on a twelve story apartment complex. The most common small project designed are two way concrete slabs being evaluated and designed for change conditions such as new stairs, larger loads, slab penetrations, and proposed additions. Some of the designs for contractor omission and or mistakes are shear collars, new load bearing walls to replace misplaced columns, retrofit steel beams for omitted concrete beams, anchor alterations, severed bar splices, wrong elevation slabs, etc. The feasibility studies conducted have been for minor jobs, such as change use for fitness facilities, elevator installation in mansions, corroded pan deck investigations, and open web joist corrosion evaluations.

NAHB Research Center, Inc., August 1999 to April 2001- Project Manager
Involved with projects related to roadmapping, physical testing, design methods, building code submittals, and in-situ housing condition assessments under contracts to HUD, PCA, NAHB, and others. In particular, project manager responsible for a pilot study to statistically evaluate the in-situ condition of housing stock in the United States, the Panelized Construction Portfolio, and Concrete Wall ICBO Evaluations among others.
Besides being active in the development of code submittals, also worked to ensure that the concerns of residential home builders are being heard on the various structural design standards committees such as ACI 332 and ASCE 7.

Reiman Corp. Construction, March 1998 to May 1999 - Project Manager/Structural Engineer
Employed as a Project Manager and Structural Engineer for a six-state bridge and commercial General Contractor. Duties included project management and engineer of record for projects, ranging in scope from interstate bridge jacking with live traffic flow to small commercial renovation designs. Also developed the concrete form designs for 15 superintendents. Active in the construction process design, bidding, project evaluation, and direct management of the project superintendents of awarded projects. A project of particular reward was the initial construction process design for the Timber Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone Park.

University of Wyoming, August 1995 to May 1999 Graduate Research Assistant
Primary investigator on developing material and design guidelines for Asphalt Plug Joints, a class of bridge expansion joints for the States of Colorado and Wyoming. These joints are highly visco-plastic, temperature sensitive pavement segments which span from the stationary pavement to the moving bridge deck. These joints required developing high-level time, temperature, and demand interrelations for the mathematical modeling of their physical behavior that was paramount to their understanding and design.  The research yielded a complete understanding of their behavior and limitations that was brought back to a simple and easily understandable design methodology that is being implemented in Wyoming today.

Caterpillar, Inc., August 1990 to August 1995 Design Engineer, Construction and Mining Trucks
Responsible for the design, analysis, and implementation of various systems for the Construction and Mining Trucks division of Caterpillar, Inc. This business unit focused on the 35-ton through 100-ton payload capacity rigid frame mining trucks typically used for civil infrastructure construction and small stationary mines. Responsibilities included Suspensions, Steering, Transmissions, Autonomous Mining Truck Program, Structural Analysis, and Regulatory Compliance. I also worked as a research engineer for the Articulated Mining Truck Program. Specific duties included developing, verifying, and interpreting dynamic simulation analytical models that predicted the ride characteristics for various design options during product development. These models were used to gain knowledge and insight prior to actual test vehicle construction.

Kansas State University, January 1989 to August 1990 Graduate Research Assistant
Conducted research funded by Boeing Military Aircraft on bolt loading of IM6/PEEK composites.  IM6/PEEK is a carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic material used in aircraft skins. This research required building finite element models using the orthotropic material behavior of the composite laminates. These models were analytically loaded through all possible orientations to determine the most critical orientations. Finally, constructed actual coupons were constructed and loaded utilizing a controlled load frame to create a correlation between the controlled experiments and finite element investigation. A reasonable correlation between the analytical and experimental results was developed.

 

Professional Registrations and Awards

Registered Structural Engineer
• District of Columbia
• Structural II State of Illinois - Inactive

Registered Professional Engineer
• State of Pennsylvania
• State of Florida - Inactive
• State of Ohio
• State of Maryland
• State of New York
• State of Virginia
• State of Delaware
• State of West Virginia

1996-1999 Eisenhower Transportation Research Fellowship Federal Highway Administration Osha 10 and Osha 30