| SCadaddle |
03-04-2019 09:09 PM |
What's the area, expressed in square feet, of a rectangle that is 12'-4 3/4" X 22'-5 9/16"? Nuff said!
Of the metric system: Probably about 30 years ago, the Mississippi DOT decided that all roadway and bridge plans would be prepared and submitted in metric. Bridge plans with designs that were once feet and inches instantly were required to be in meters. And decimals of the meter. I had a LOT of heavy highway roadway/bridge construction surveying under my belt at the time, and my Dad, well he was quite well known by then a Civil P.E. at age 70 that was THE go to guy when it came to bridges in the State.
So I asked him, Dad, has anyone with MDOT that has made this determination to "go metric" ever set foot on a bridge that was being built? Do they actually expect the workers that build the forms to the rodbusters that layout the structural steel bars to actually put down their tape measures of feet and inches and pick up a metric tape measure?!
The end result was every job was bid with metric plans, and the contractor that was awarded the job got a set of bridge plans......in feet and inches. The whole program lasted only a few years before MDOT realized it wasn't going to work. In all honesty, I think they realized it was a bad idea that would require the removal and replacement of every interstate highway exit sign to the nearest kilometer. Spendy stuff, especially when it comes to overhead sign trusses in the more metropolitan areas.
Of using the metric system in property surveying: "I've got 82.45 +/- Hectares to sell, just a few kilometers down the road from the county barn. What you give me?" Yeah right....!
Of Cadd drawings: Everything is drawn at a 1:1 scale. The scale you choose to plot the drawing might be 1"=40' or perhaps 1"=100'. But regardless, the actual drawing is 1:1. Now, imagine an Engineering/Surveying office with the "best cadd guy in all of the world" (because every office has one of those) and he draws up a subdivision plat. By design, suppose a lot line is 100' in length. Well, we got to set an iron pin in the field at the ends of the line, so he's going to denote that point with a 3' circle at the endpoints of the line. The 3' circle is chosen so you can see the circle at the end of the lines when it gets plotted. But hang on, our "best cadd guy in all of the world" decides he doesn't like seeing the little bit of lines that go into and out of his 3' diameter circles at the endpoints of the lines. So he "trims" the part of the line that is inside our 3' circle at both ends of the line. THEN he has the cadd program label the length of the lines. Uh oh, our 100' line got trimmed by 1.5' at each end for the 3' circle at each end, it gets labled as 97', plotted, sent out the door and recorded at the courthouse. Many many lot lines. Many many lots. Big time fail!
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