The planned replacement of metric signage along Interstate 19 from Tucson to Nogales is on hold while the state researches how it might affect nearby businesses.

Opposition from the Green Valley Community Coordinating Council, the unincorporated area’s volunteer governmental entity, prompted Gov. Jan Brewer to hold off on the $1.5 million project of changing the 100 kilometers — 63 miles — of I-19 signage, said Tim Bee, who heads Brewer’s Tucson office.

The council asked Brewer to consider keeping the metric signs that have marked the I-19’s exit numbers since 1980   saying a change to mileage markers would impact businesses along the freeway.

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The cost to pay for changing the signs would come from $521 million in federal stimulus funds set aside for Arizona’s roads and bridges.

I-19 and an interstate in northern Vermont on the only to interstates marked in metric, according to the U.S. Metric Association.