What happened was that the deadline date for metrication of state DOTs
was removed from the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988. This
was the result of a line in the Transportation Equity Act of 1998
(TEA-21). The line was added in the Senate Transportation Committee
chaired by Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-SC).
The Highway Commission in South Carolina was at the time heavily
represented by Democrats and reputed to be a bunch of "old fuddy duddy,
Good Ol' Boys". The chair of that Commission was a personal friend of
Senator Hollings; they were frequently seen in the news together.
When the act (called ITEA or "Iced Tea" at the time) was on the Senate
floor for debate and vote I wrote to Senator Hollings and expressed
concern that previously metricated DOTs would revert, not to mention
that metrication of the DOTs would be stalled. Senator Hollings sent me
a letter in which he stated that he felt those states would not revert.
Obviously, that turned out otherwise.
At the time I was a resident of South Carolina but I never cast a vote
in favor of Senator Hollings.
Jim
Scott Hudnall wrote:
In my opinion it is lack of leadership on the issue. Also, lobbyists
from the construction industry and the Food Marketing Institute keep
blocking legislation that would move us forward.
The Federal Government was set to have all roads constructed in metric,
and many states completely converted. Lobbyists from the construction
industry found some sympathetic congressmen from Alabama (or Georgia ?)
to insert language into a bill that made metric road construction
voluntary rather than mandatory. States that had not already converted,
stopped the effort.
States like California that had completely transitioned to metric road
construction got screwed by contractors that would bid metric
construction jobs at a higher cost, so these states are now spending
quite a sum of money to revert back to US measurements.
Until the leadership in this country takes a "just do it" attitude,
progress will probably continue to incremental.
On 2008-03 -11, at 12:40 , ernie edwards wrote:
Can someone bring me up to speed on what is holding up converting
completely to metrics?
I was exposed to metrics, while living in Spain for 5 years in the mid
80's. We were building Dept. of Defense buildings in a number of
Mediterranean countries.... metrics sure made sense to me....
I am trying to start a dialog in the American Institute of Architects
(AIA) on supporting full conversion and I have sent emails to The
Associated General Contractors (AGC) and The National Society of
Professional Engineers (NSPE) asking their position on metrics. So
far, I haven't heard from either the AGC or NSPE.
Again, please help me understand where the hold up is?
Thanks, Ernie Edwards, AIA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(H) 931.657.3107
(C) 931.212.0267
