If I remember correctly, when many US federal projects were being built 10 – 15 years ago in metric units, all the scare stories about mistakes and higher costs proved to be false (the USMA should have all this documented somewhere). On this courthouse project, I suspect other reasons are to blame for the higher costs, and the use of SI is a simple scapegoat.
John F-L From: Kilopascal Sent: Saturday, May 25, 2013 5:25 PM To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:52818] RE: Thomas F. Eagleton Federal Courthouse: Most overbuilt in nation | ksdk.com So much for the US school system teaching metric. If that claim were true then an American exiting high school should be able to apply and be hirable to a metric business. Obviously not. There are many ways for Construction Companies to get around this excuse. There are a sufficient number of metric educated immigrants both legal and illegal who could do the metric work. It would probably be cheaper to hire the immigrant then convert the plans and hire a native. Business can send the message of the importance of working in metric simply by hiring those that are knowledgeable in it. Apply for workers in Spanish language publications is one way. Obviously your friend's company really didn't solve the problem. I'm not sure what they were doing with the metric tankers. I can assume repairing it or updating it. It just means that in the future a US company or port facility that offers repair services will not be considered by overseas firms to send their ships to the US for maintenance. The real solution to this problem is what I just mentioned. Hire only people who can prove a working knowledge in metric units. Their decision will actually prove even more costly to them in the long term. This is something you need to relate to your friend. [USMA:52818] RE: Thomas F. Eagleton Federal Courthouse: Most overbuilt in nation | ksdk.com Team Metric Info Sat, 25 May 2013 06:58:15 -0700 I think this is workforce issue, more than anything. I have spoken to some companies who would like to build in SI units but the typical construction worker exiting our public school system is not qualified. The summary argument is that it is cheaper to convert the plans, than to pay to fix the mistakes made trying to build in metric units. A related example, I am friends with a sand control engineer who works on oil rigs. It is an international company. They attempted to bring metric tankers to the US. The oil workers made so many mistakes on the rig that the company decided it was cheaper to build tankers for use only in the U.S than to correct all the errors... We must start to change the Education system or we will continue to produce a workforce ill-equipped to work in metric units. From: Kilopascal [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, May 2, 2013 8:52 PM To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: Thomas F. Eagleton Federal Courthouse: Most overbuilt in nation | ksdk.com http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/378267/3/Eagleton-Courthouse-Most-overbuilt -in-nation- A government report reveals the Thomas F. Eagleton Federal Courthouse in downtown St. Louis is the most over built courthouse in the nation. The building dominates the St. Louis skyline. At 557 feet, it is the tallest courthouse in the country and the first built using the metric system. The GAO didn't look at whether the government's use of the metric system is part of the problem when it comes to over-building Eagleton and the other courthouses. No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2013.0.3343 / Virus Database: 3184/6355 - Release Date: 05/24/13
