PRINTER'S NO. 1377
No. 102 Session of 1999
INTRODUCED BY WAUGH, MURPHY, COSTA, THOMPSON, O'PAKE, STOUT,
BELL AND RHOADES, OCTOBER 4, 1999
REFERRED TO TRANSPORTATION, OCTOBER 4, 1999
A RESOLUTION
1 Urging the Department of Transportation to abandon its policy to
2 proceed with metric conversion.
3 WHEREAS, The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation as
4 well as all other state departments of transportation were
5 previously required to convert to the metric system of
6 measurement for all federally funded projects by September 30,
7 1996; and
8 WHEREAS, On November 28, 1995, President Clinton signed the
9 National Highway System Designation Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-
10 59, 109 Stat. 568); and
11 WHEREAS, The National Highway System Designation Act of 1995
12 repealed the Federal mandate that all state departments of
13 transportation convert to metric by September 30, 1996, and, in
14 fact, specifically prohibited the United States Department of
15 Transportation from mandating metric conversion until the year
16 2000; and
17 WHEREAS, Congress in May of 1998 passed the Transportation
1 Equity Act for the 21st Century (Public Law 105-178, 112 Stat.
2 107) which struck down the mandate requiring metric conversion
3 by the states in the year 2000 and giving states the option to
4 continue metric conversion or revert back to English units; and
5 WHEREAS, The members of the highway construction industry
6 conduct business with many private companies and firms and with
7 local governments which will continue to use English units; and
8 WHEREAS, All transportation-related projects constructed in
9 this Commonwealth are situated only within this Commonwealth and
10 are not influenced by world trade or global markets; and
11 WHEREAS, The vast majority of people readily acknowledge that
12 dual units, metric and English:
13 (1) will be confusing, costly and prone to result in
14 errors;
15 (2) will require costly modifications to surveying
16 equipment, asphalt paving equipment, concrete paving
17 equipment, computer equipment, etc.; and
18 (3) will require an enormous amount of training for both
19 Department of Transportation and industry personnel;
20 and
21 WHEREAS, These increased costs will ultimately be included in
22 contract costs which will not be in the public's best interest;
23 and
24 WHEREAS, English units continue to be the most prevalent
25 measure taught in our educational systems; and
26 WHEREAS, Metric conversion will have the most detrimental
27 effect on the smaller construction firms; and
28 WHEREAS, The Department of Transportation has stated that as
29 part of its total Quality Initiative and Baldrige Criteria
30 programs, which establish a comprehensive standard for assessing
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1 organizational performance, the members of the highway
2 construction industry are its stakeholders and, in turn, their
3 opinions and recommendations should be carefully considered;
4 therefore be it
5 RESOLVED, That the Senate urge the Department of
6 Transportation to abandon its policy to proceed with metric
7 conversion unless metric conversion is later mandated by Federal
8 legislation; and be it further
9 RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be presented to the
10 Secretary of Transportation.
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