In my opinion the failure in converting the highway construction industry was the attempt to convert part of an industry. Things were going smooth here in NY but Consultants and Contractors working for private owners and developers had to build in US Customary for civil works but State DOT’s (and in main cases local highway agencies) all were metric. Plus some states dragged their feet so contractors working in multiple states were working in a mix of units. It was a nightmare for contractors so they pushed to end it, which was an easy sell on their part. Commercial and public buildings were still in US customary making it difficult for suppliers. Imagine you’re a steel fabricator making steel for a metric bridge one day and a US customary building the next.
It be like if GM was had to build cars in the US in English and build cars in metric for the rest of the world. Howard R. Ressel Project Design Engineer [Dept of Transportation Logo-with gov and commish names-memo] The Meter: “For all time, for all peoples” Nicolas de Condorcet 1743 – 1794 From: USMA <[email protected]> On Behalf Of John Steele Sent: Sunday, October 06, 2019 8:37 PM To: USMA List Server <[email protected]>; [email protected] Subject: [USMA 1210] Re: Whatever Happened to Executive Order 12770 of 1991? ATTENTION: This email came from an external source. Do not open attachments or click on links from unknown senders or unexpected emails. Actually 1988 amendments to the 1975 Metric Conversion Act. Well, no President since it was signed has ever enforced it or demanded the annual reviews of progress it requires, so several agencies got used to making no or only token progress, exploiting the loopholes to continue Customary, etc. Agencies that took it seriously triggered laws from Congress that basically said, In the name of God, DON'T do what we said you had to do. We didn't mean it, not really." The FHWA was admonished for forcing metric road designs and metric signage on the States. Congress passed a 1995 law forbidding them to, and the States reverted to Customary road designs. As a "poison pill" for metric signage, several States (eg California) passed laws that not only must the State agree to metric signage but every local government along the way. Metrication of road signs goes from a problem of convincing 50 states to 50000 or so local governments. The agency in charge of metric design of federal buildings was told they HAD to consider Customary dimension bricks and lighting fixtures. Of course, their dimensions don't fit modular metric design, turning the process into endless conversions and dual dimensioning, instead of actually designing in metric. You didn't think Congress actually meant what they said about metric being preferred, did you? It's only "preferred" when it doesn't inconvenience their major political donors. If you think I am joking, the laws stymieing metrication as above are on the USMA Metric Laws page. On Sunday, October 6, 2019, 8:06:06 PM EDT, [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: This implemented the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 at the U.s. Government level with specific directives to convert. _______________________________________________ USMA mailing list [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
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