106.11 Metric Implementation

This article establishes standard procedures for inspection and reporting of materials on metric contracts or with metric paperwork. For contract work that refers to Sec 106.11, Metric Implementation, will handle most authority needed for enforcement.

The values stated in the Engineering Policy Guide in either English or metric units are to be regarded separately as the standard. Within the text, the metric units are shown in parenthesis. The values stated in each system are not exact equivalents; therefore, each system must be used independently of the other.

Above all, it is important that documentation correctly identify the material and its manufactured units. If needed, a conversion can be performed for payment quantities purposes.

In a precise ("soft") conversion, a measurement is mathematically converted to its exact (or nearly exact) equivalent. With an approximate ("hard") conversion, a new rounded, rationalized metric number is created that is convenient to work with and remember.

Megagram is the metric version of a ton, not "tonne" or long ton.

Procedure

On the contract tab in AWP, quantities should be entered to the official unit for that material code. For contracts generated after May ’04 the official unit is displayed on the contract tab. Contracts generated before then should be reported to the units designated on the sampling checklist for that material.

When a project is designed and specified in metric units, all AWP reports to that contract are to be in metric with the exception of concrete.

If materials are “presented” in units other than the contract units, it is a good practice to place the “presented” units and quantity on the sample tab of a AWP record. The official units and contract quantities can then be placed on the contract tab.

Reports to Maintenance, General Services and other MoDOT divisions for other than construction work should be in the units as bid, normally English.

Normally, when converting from English to metric, if one maintains the same number of significant digits, the same accuracy will be maintained, e.g. 125 ft. (3 digits) converts to 38.1 m (3 digits).

AASHTO R1-04 is considered the final metric authority. Refer to Table 106.11 for some common conversations. This may be critical in some instances, as it is not uncommon for calculators to be off from the official multiplier. In all cases, where some form of equipment does the conversion, the multiplier used should be checked. For the transportation industry, the following are considered as standards. Do not use multiples of 10 such as centi, deci, etc. except in rare instances where it eliminates a lot of decimal places. Example: In a range between cubic millimeters and cubic meters there is a lot of space and cubic centimeters may be appropriate, but should normally be avoided. Common units are gram and meters with prefixes of milli (10^-3), kilo (10³) and mega (10⁶).

Table 106.11, Common Area, Length and Volume Conversion Factors

Quantity	From English Units	To Metric Units	Multiply By
Length	mile	km	1.609344
	yard	m	0.9144
	foot	m	0.3048
	foot	mm	304.8
	inch	mm	25.4
Area (1 hectare = 10,000m2)	square mile	km2	2.59000
	acre	m2	4046.856
	acre	ha (10,000 m2)	0.4046856
	square yard	m2	0.83612736
	square foot	m2	0.09290304
	square inch	mm2	645.15
Volume	acre foot	m3	1233.49
	cubic yard	m3	0.764555
	cubic foot	m3	0.0283168
	cubic foot	L	28.31685
	gallon	L (1000 cm3)	3.78541
	cubic inch	mm3	16387.064
Other	psi	MPa	0.006894757
	pound-force	Newton (N)	4.448222
	pound-weight	kilogram (kg)	0.45359237