Michael:

I suspect your signature block, depicting the World Trade towers, is lost on
most people on this list.

Out of curiosity, I copied it into a Notepad document. However, as I use a
proportional font for email, it appears, in messages, as a random collection
of vertical lines and backslashes.

Bill Potts, CMS
Roseville, CA
http://metric1.org [SI Navigator]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
> Behalf Of Michael G. Koerner
> Sent: Sunday, June 23, 2002 11:27
> To: U.S. Metric Association
> Subject: [USMA:20582] Re: Dutch company builds road in the USA
>
>
> "Han Maenen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > Subject: [USMA:20574] Dutch company builds road in the USA
> > Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2002 10:39:29 +0200
> > From: "Han Maenen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > To: U.S. Metric Association <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >
> > A Dutch company, HBG Constructors, American subsidiary of
> Hollandsche Beton
> > Groep (HBG) (beton means concrete) has achieved together with
> the American
> > company Lane an order to build a 17 km highway in North
> Carolina. The road,
> > with six lanes and 23 bridges crossing it is to be delivered at
> the end of
> > 2004.
>
> I am kindof curious, what highway project is this?  North Carolina have
> been very active in new highway (especially motorways) construction in
> recent years.
>
> > HBG will carry out the design and the building of the project. If NC
> > is ifp, then HBG will adapt to it, it is simple like that.
> > Is North Carolina a 'metric' or a foot-pound state? I wonder
> whether ever
> > American contractors will get orders to build roads in the EU,
> as they have
> > succeeded so wonderfully in forcing the large majority of US states to
> > revert.
>
> Unfortunately, North Carolina does its highway engineering, contracting
> and construction entirely in Olde Englishe 'quotes and apostrophies'.
> They never made any real attempt to use SI during the 1990s.  The state
> is in the heart of the highly conservative 'Deep South'.
>
> And yes, it is the USA's domestic contractors who lobbied (and continue
> to lobby) the various state governments to 'revert' to and remain using
> Olde Englishe measures.
>
> > If ever they want to expand to the EU, they will have to use the
> > metric system of course, even in Britain! And as they are rabidly
> > anti-metric they may miss out, shooting themselves in the foot
> and adding to
> > the American trade deficit.
> > That Mr. Nayaert from Michigan, who was one of the main persons
> responsible
> > for the reversion of that state, will never get an order for
> his company to
> > come to the EU with his ifp equipment to build roads and other
> objects. And
> > training our workers in the use of that trash is a definite no-no.
>
> People like those contractors are often too short sighted to see beyond
> the borders of their own state into other states, much less across the
> Saint Mary's and Saint Claire Rivers (into Canada from Michigan) for
> even more opportubities.
>
> None the less, the USA is in the midst of joining the rest of the world
> in 'football' power and prowess, as the national team played well enough
> to make it deep into the second round of the World Cup this year (almost
> beating Germany, too) and fields all across the USA are being literally
> overrun by young people playing the game.
>
> A sea change is DEFINITELY in the air.
>
> (I also hear that our money will be taking on additional colors starting
> next year....)
>
> > Han
> > Historian of Dutch Metrication, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
>
> --
> ___________________________________________  ____
> _______________
> Regards,                                    |    |\    ____
>                                             |    | |  |    |\
> Michael G. Koerner               May they   |    | |  |    | |
> rise again!
> Appleton, Wisconsin USA                     |    | |  |    | |
> ___________________________________________ |    | |  |    | |
> _______________
>

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