Correct, it became optional and several states continued on as long as they could.
Howard From: USMA <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Phil Chernack Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2020 2:55 PM To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Subject: [USMA 1459] Re: State Higway metric rollback ATTENTION: This email came from an external source. Do not open attachments or click on links from unknown senders or unexpected emails. The law that required metric plans to be submitted to the FHWA was ISTEA ( Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991) passed in 1991. While it required metric plans, it prohibited federal money to be used for metric signage. After AASHTO (American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials) promulgated metric plans and many states converted to metric by 2000, they were receiving complaints from contractors that while the state level was metric, the county and local level as well as private construction was not. When the next transportation funding bill was passed (TEA-21, Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century) it removed the metric plan requirement. Phil Chernack On Wed, Jun 10, 2020 at 9:28 AM Mark Henschel <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: I remember going to a conference of Federal highway officials back around 20 or 30 years ago. All of the discussion was about standards and sizes. How wide will the roads be and how big will the interchanges be? Somehow somebody got upset they would have to see those signs in kilometers, even though none of the discussion was about signs. When the legislation went through in the highway bill, it prohibited ALL federal money for metric related activities. I'm sure they were mainly afraid of kilometer signs, but the legislation effectively stopped all federal money for all metric related activities. Thus states, such as Minnesota, which was fairly well along in the metric standards transition, had to roll back ALL metric work, there being no federal reimbursement money available to pay for any of their metric activity. Mark Henschel On Wed, Jun 10, 2020 at 7:17 AM Michael Payne <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: I distinctly remember reading somewhere, probably on this list serve how someone in Congress slipped something into a budget bill (?) that upended the whole transition, and if memory serves, I think more than 40 states had already transitioned to doing all Federal Highway construction and planning in SI. I’m sure this was in the late 90’s early 2000’s. It cost money to transition and money to transition back. What a waste. Someone will read this and remember. Unless I have it all wrong? Mike Payne On 10 Jun 2020, at 13:03, Mark Henschel <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Federal legislation in the Highway bill prohibited federal money being used to pay for Metric System items such as highway signs. Since there was no money to pay for it, all metrication work on highways stopped. Ironically states were not asking for money for signs, but for actual construction using SI units This was back in the Reagan era, and no changes have been made since. On Tue, Jun 9, 2020, 11:45 PM Michael Payne <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Anyone have the history of how and why most State Highway departments rolled back their metric transition a number of years back? I seem to remember it was some Congressmen who inserted language into a budget somewhere that made the whole transition voluntary. And it all unravelled. Mike Payne _______________________________________________ USMA mailing list [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma _______________________________________________ USMA mailing list [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma _______________________________________________ USMA mailing list [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
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