On Sunday 11 March 2001 1647, Nat Hager III wrote:
> Precast Concrete Goes to Court
....
Thanks for posting that, Nat. I have just sent the following email to
some local mayors and to our local paper:
- - - - - -
Open letter to the mayors of North Charleston and Charleston
Released for publication in the Charleston Post and Courier
Dear Mayors:
I see a lot of talk about the new Cooper River bridge being a 100 year
bridge.
Who is making sure that it gets designed and built in metric so that
the following generations don't curse us for using old-fashioned units?
Are we going to force them to scrounge for old tools and materials in
order to maintain it?
Contrary to myth, designing and building in metric is no more expensive
than in other units. Just ask the American Association of State Highway
and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and the National Institute of
Building Sciences (NIBS), among many others. Or any of the many states
that do all their highway design and construction in metric.
Lately our workforce has been criticized for being weak in modern
technologies. If we build our bridge in metric units, it would help
bring our local workers up to speed on working in metric and make our
work force more attractive to investors here in the Gateway to the
World.
The new courthouse in St. Louis is nearing completion and one of the
comments made in a precast concrete trade journal about the project was:
One of the more unique elements of the job was that is was
built using metric measurements. "It caused very little problem,
though," Isenhour says. "There was some resistance at first,
but we quickly became comfortable with it."
Virtually all federal construction is now done in metric. The American
Welding Society standards have gone metric. The American Concrete
Institute has a policy statement that says,
The American Concrete Institute (ACI) supports conversion
to and increased use of the International System of Units (SI).
and they are metricating their standards, as well. Formed steel and
rebar are available in metric sizes now.
We, the last 4% of the people of the world to metricate, are surely
going to do so in much less than 100 years. Can we think into the
future here?
James R. Frysinger
--
James R. Frysinger University/College of Charleston
10 Captiva Row Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
Charleston, SC 29407 66 George Street
843.225.0805 Charleston, SC 29424
http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cert. Adv. Metrication Specialist 843.953.7644
