That's right - thanks!
I believe it was a Congressman from (Alabama or Georgia) who
sponsored the "Cost Savings in Construction Act" that relaxed the
metric requirements in construction for Federal buildings.
On 2008-03 -16, at 16:39 , James Frysinger wrote:
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
