Found this while reading an article about an old and new bridge in Aspen Colorado.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maroon_Creek_Bridge#cite_note-Layne_Geoconstruction-8 The abutments on either side of the gorge are supported by 72 8-inch (200 mm) micropiles designed to support 150 kips each. Apparently In the United States, a kip is a non-SI unit of force that equals 1,000 pounds-force, used primarily by architects and engineers to measure engineering loads. Although uncommon, it is occasionally also considered a unit of mass, equal to 1,000 pounds, i.e. one half of a U.S. ton. One use is as a unit of deadweight to compute shipping charges. 1 kip = 4448.2216 Newtons (N) = 4.4482216 kilonewtons (kN). Mike Payne
