PRIOR PRINTER'S NO. 2121 PRINTER'S NO. 2612
No. 225 Session of 1999
INTRODUCED BY GEIST, ARGALL, BAKER, BARD, BATTISTO, BELFANTI,
CLARK, CLYMER, CORRIGAN, DALEY, DRUCE, GEORGE, GIGLIOTTI,
HALUSKA, HARHAI, HERSHEY, LAUGHLIN, LEH, MANN, MARSICO,
McILHATTAN, MELIO, S. MILLER, READSHAW, SATHER, SERAFINI,
SEYFERT, SHANER, B. SMITH, S. H. SMITH, SOLOBAY, STAIRS,
STERN, E. Z. TAYLOR, TIGUE, TRELLO, WILT, WOJNAROSKI,
YOUNGBLOOD, ZIMMERMAN, HESS, MARKOSEK, R. MILLER AND DAILEY,
JUNE 21, 1999
AS REPORTED FROM COMMITTEE ON INTERGOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS, HOUSE
OF REPRESENTATIVES, AS AMENDED, NOVEMBER 8, 1999
A RESOLUTION
1 Urging the Department of Transportation to abandon its policy to <--
2 proceed with metric conversion OF DESIGNING AND CONSTRUCTING <--
3 HIGHWAY PROJECTS IN METRIC UNITS.
4 WHEREAS, The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation as
5 well as all other transportation/highway departments in the
6 United States were previously required to convert to the metric
7 system of measurement for all federally funded projects by
8 September 30, 1996; and
9 WHEREAS, On November 28, 1995, President Clinton signed the
10 National Highway System (NHS) Bill into law as the National
11 Highway System Designation Act of 1995; and
12 WHEREAS, The National Highway System Designation Act of 1995
13 repealed the Federal mandate that all state departments of
14 transportation convert to metric by September 30, 1996, and, in
15 fact, specifically prohibited the United States Department of
1 Transportation from mandating metric conversion until the year
2 2000; and
3 WHEREAS, Congress in May of 1998 passed the Transportation
4 Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA 21) Bill which struck down
5 the mandate requiring metric conversion by the states in the
6 year 2000 and gave states the option to continue metric
7 conversion or revert back to English units; and
8 WHEREAS, The members of the highway construction industry
9 conduct business with many private companies/firms and with
10 local governments which will continue the use of English units;
11 and
12 WHEREAS, All transportation-related projects constructed in
13 this Commonwealth are situated only within the State and are not
14 influenced by world trade or global markets; and
15 WHEREAS, The vast majority of people readily acknowledge that
16 dual units, metric and English:
17 (1) will be confusing, costly and prone to result in
18 errors;
19 (2) will require costly modifications to surveying <--
20 equipment, asphalt paving equipment, concrete paving
21 equipment, computer equipment, etc.; and MODIFICATIONS TO AND <--
22 EXPENDITURES FOR EQUIPMENT AND COMPUTER PROGRAMS BY INDUSTRY
23 AS BUSINESS OPERATIONS ARE PERFORMED IN BOTH SETS OF UNITS;
24 AND
25 (3) will require an enormous amount of training for both <--
26 Department of Transportation and industry personnel;
27 and
28 WHEREAS, The above-referenced increased costs will ultimately <--
29 be included in contract costs which will not be in the public's
30 best interest; and
19990H0225R2612 - 2 -
1 WHEREAS, English units continue to be the most prevalent
2 measure taught in our educational systems; and
3 WHEREAS, Metric conversion will have the most detrimental
4 effect on the smaller construction firms; and
5 WHEREAS, The Department of Transportation has stated that as
6 part of its total Quality Initiative and Baldrige Criteria
7 programs, which establish a comprehensive standard for assessing
8 organizational performance, the members of the highway
9 construction industry are its stakeholders and, in turn, their
10 opinions and recommendations should be carefully considered;
11 therefore be it
12 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives urge the
13 Department of Transportation to abandon its policy to proceed <--
14 DESIGN EXCLUSIVELY with metric conversion unless metric <--
15 conversion UNITS UNLESS THE USE OF METRIC UNITS is later <--
16 mandated by Federal legislation; and be it further
17 RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be presented to the
18 Secretary of Transportation.
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