State DOT plans switch to standard measures

AUGUSTA – After using the metric system to design road and bridge projects for the last decade, state transportation officials are in the midst of a gradual transition to standard measurements.

The switch to English measurement units began in July 2003 as land surveys for all new state Department of Transportation projects began, department officials said.

The first signs of standard measurements are expected next season, but officials said it would be several years before all the department’s projects are back in feet and pounds.

During the changeover, state Chief Engineer John E. Dority said some projects under construction will use metrics and some the U.S. customary measurements.

Augusta’s new bridge spanning the Kennebec River is a good example, he said.

Some of the department’s engineers long for the metric measurements because some calculations are easier in the decimal-based metric system, officials said. So the system being reinstituted by DOT will have one modification.

Rather than feet and inches, distance will be measured in tenths of a foot, allowing similar simplicity in calculations involving less than whole feet.

About a decade ago, federal transportation officials, who fund a portion of many state projects, demanded road projects be designed and measured in the metric system.

Most states dutifully made the switch, in many cases made more expensive and difficult by the fact that states were making major investments in computer-aided design systems, Dority explained.

Once the change to metric actually hit the nation’s streets and bridges, there was an uproar from state officials because of the practical difficulties they faced, said David Bernhardt, the Transportation Department’s assistant director of project development and an engineer.

It did not take long before federal officials backed off and the mandate was reduced to a recommendation, he said.