Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/U.S. Route 113/archive1

The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by SandyGeorgia 02:05, 3 April 2011 [1].

U.S. Route 113 edit

Featured article candidates/U.S. Route 113/archive1

Nominator(s): V C 17:37, 11 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I am nominating this for featured article because this article is one of the most broad and comprehensive treatments of one of the most important highways of the Delmarva Peninsula. This article passed GAN without a problem, was greatly improved through WP:USRD's A-Class Review, and had a history makeover and overall reorganization to make it even more comprehensive and reader friendly. A few outstanding issues with the article were resolved in the Peer Review process. I am confident this article is up to the task of passing the highest of reviews; I welcome any constructive criticism to resolve any remaining deficiencies. V C 17:37, 11 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

DAB/EL check both kinds of links are good in the article. Imzadi 1979 → 18:53, 11 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Image review checking under criterion 3 for FAs, all images have acceptable copyright statuses (either public domain or a free license.) All captions are succinct in keeping with the criterion, but as a personal preference, I don't know that they need wikilinks. All images are appropriate for the article. Imzadi 1979 → 18:53, 11 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Source review

Use a consistent format for retrieval dates - most are ISO, so that should be the standard
- All accessdate parameters are ISO. Perhaps you were referring to the date parameters for refs 26, 27, and 29. I changed them from Month Year to ISO Year Month for consistency. Did that address the issue? V C 21:18, 11 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  - No, I'm looking at retrieval date - in particular, ref 45
    - I replaced the templated inflation reference with a cite web reference that displays the same items with the ISO date format. V C 11:17, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Compare formatting of refs 1 and 5
- Can you elaborate on what specifically you would like me address with these references?
  - Why does one include a "Cartography by..." statement while the other does not? Surely that statement is implied?
    - Ref 5 includes a cartography statement because that statement is automatically produced by Template:Google Maps. I replaced the templated Google Maps reference with a Cite map version to achieve consistency. Does that address your concern? V C 11:17, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
      - Actually, no, it isn't. Google recently changed its underlying cartography from NavTEQ/TeleAtlas to their own internal data. Assuming that the redundancy is problematic (which I don't think it is, maps citations should always state the source of the cartography if known just like a newspaper citation should state the reporter's name from the byline if given) then the proper course of events would be to change {{google maps}}, not bypass it. Imzadi 1979 → 17:31, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
"North of Berlin, US 113 is a four-lane divided highway that crosses several creeks that come together to form the St. Martin River, which empties into Isle of Wight Bay, a lagoon on the west side of Ocean City. The first of three sections of old alignment of US 113 north of Berlin, MD 575 (Worcester Highway), splits to the northeast toward Friendship at a right-in/right-out interchange with the northbound direction. The U.S. highway leaves the railroad track and meets MD 90 (Ocean City Expressway) at a partial cloverleaf interchange; MD 90 provides an alternative route to US 50 for traveling to Ocean City. US 113 continues north to its interchange with the northern end of MD 575 and MD 589 (Racetrack Road), which leads to Ocean Pines and Ocean Downs, a harness racing track with a slot machine casino that opened in January 2011.[13]" - ref 13 doesn't mention the highway at all, and only supports the last point about the opening of the slot machine casino. Check for similar instances and add citations to support uncited material where necessary
- Can you explain which statements you think should be cited or that you are challenging? I do not think any of the information you quoted is likely to be challenged except for the casino opening date, but I could be wrong. V C 21:18, 11 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  - In this particular instance, the "alternative route" and "first of three sections". Haven't checked similar instances
    - I replaced the "alternative route" statement by stating MD 90 connects northern Ocean City and US 50 west of Berlin. I do not think "first of three sections" needs to be cited because I mention all three sections in the paragraph. V C 11:17, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
What makes this a reliable source? What about this? What are the qualifications of the authors?
- The Historical Marker Database is a collection of photos of historical markers. Historical markers placed by governments or other public bodies to commemorate local history or local landmarks are reliable sources. The website nationalbridges.com is a searchable database of data pulled from the National Bridge Inventory, which consists of bridge data compiled by the Federal Highway Administration. In the case of the HMDB, the authors are the people who took the photos and wrote the entries based on those photos of markers. Does this address your concern? V C 21:18, 11 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  - Nope. I accept that the historical markers themselves are reliable sources, but you seem to be sourcing statements to the website descriptions written by the image uploaders - what are the qualifications of these authors? Nationalbridges is more acceptable, but why not cite the Federal Highway Administration directly? Nikkimaria (talk) 23:16, 11 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
    - The authors of the HMDB entries are qualified to take photos of historical markers and transcribe the writing on the historical markers verbatim. I do not cite FHWA directly because the FHWA data files are ASCII jumbles of letters and numbers from which it would be very difficult to verify a particular bridge's data. The Nationalbridges website transforms that data into a much more usable format. V C 11:17, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Check for doubled periods and other small formatting glitches
- I found and corrected two examples of double periods. V C 21:18, 11 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Be consistent in whether authors are listed last or first name first. Nikkimaria (talk) 20:14, 11 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
- I found and corrected one example of an author not being listed last name first. Thank you for your review, Nikkimaria. V C 21:18, 11 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Support. Honestly, I just checked this route's article two nights ago, and I was very impressed with it. Lo and behold you're taking it to FAC while it's still fresh in my mind ;)
That said, a few comments are in order.
- "The U.S. highway between Berlin and the Delaware state line was expanded to a divided highway around 2000." - given how recent it was, don't you know the exact year the highway was expanded? (it probably appears later in the article)
  - Construction began in 1998 and sections opened in 2000, 2002, and 2003. You are correct that it appears later. I used "around 2000" as an alternative to "early 2000s", which could be interpreted as a variety of time ranges. Do you have any suggestions? V C 02:21, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
- "The Maryland State Highway Administration (MDSHA) is upgrading the last remaining two-lane portions of US 113 between Snow Hill and Berlin to a four-lane divided highway" - maybe specify a little more by saying "is currently upgrading"?
  - I added "currently". However, I anticipate another reviewer saying "currently" is redundant later. We will see. V C 02:21, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
- The first three sentences in "Route description" use "run" as a verb. Can't you come up with something a little more original?
  - I replaced two of the instances of "run". V C 02:21, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
- I would specify the type of intersection 113 has with 13 in Pocomoke City.
  - The fourth photo shows that intersection. It is just a standard signalized intersection, so I am not sure there is much to be said about it. Perhaps say it is at grade? V C 02:21, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
- I gotta say, I like the detail you give in the route description. It's so much more engaging than other ones I've read, where it's just a turn by turn.
  - I appreciate that, thanks! Being engaging was one of the points hammered into me during the A-Class Review. V C 02:21, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
- Do you have an update on the road more recent than "As of October 2010"?
  - I do not have a more recent update. As I explained in the History section, the present project is not expected to be completed until the second half of 2011. V C 02:21, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
- "the divided highway extends south to Goody Hill Road between Newark and Ironshire" - I'm confused why you're changing directions. The rest of the article goes northward.
  - I rewrote the sentence so it progresses from south to north. V C 02:21, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
- "The U.S. highway traverses Five Mile Branch of the Pocomoke River before the highway veers away from that river and passes into the Atlantic Ocean watershed, where the highway crosses Massey Branch and Poplartown Branch of Beaverdam Creek, which flow into Newport Bay." - try avoid using the word "highway" three times, and see if you can organize that long sentence a little better.
  - I rewrote that passage as two sentences. V C 02:21, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
- "which is marked US 9 Truck. US 9 Truck" - could you find a way to avoid the redundancy?
  - I replaced one of the US 9 Truck mentions with "the truck route" for variety. V C 02:21, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
- Any reason you put "$642 thousand-per-mile ($399 thousand-per-kilometer)"? It'd be shorter just putting $642,000 per mile than writing out thousand.
  - I think I wanted to avoid the converted figure having more significant digits than the original. I will play around with the templates and get back to this later. V C 02:21, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
    - I played around with the templates and got it to display in a way of which both of us would approve. V C 11:17, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
- The image section in "Delaware truncation and freeway" mentions a place called "Newark". I would either put that in the Maryland section, and/or clarify that it's in Maryland, since I immediately thought of Newark, Delaware and thought "wait a minute..."
  - I switched the images around so the "Newark" image is in a Maryland section next to the prose explaining the construction project. V C 02:21, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Good luck! --♫ Hurricanehink (talk) 23:20, 11 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your review, Hurricanehink. V C 02:21, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
- Cool, thanks for the quick response! --♫ Hurricanehink (talk) 02:23, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Support - I have reviewed this article and feel that it is broad in its coverage, well-written, well-sourced, and illustrated with several images. Dough 48 72 01:29, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Support - I reviewed this article during the ACR stage and believe it meets the standard. My only reservation was possibly having too much detail, but as other reviewers don't have a problem with it, then it's probably fine. --Rs chen 7754 19:47, 12 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Why are dates bolded in citations? Bolding is for volume numbers? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 01:29, 3 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Never mind, I see those sources list dates as volumes. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 01:31, 3 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Repetitous prose, became ... become ... "The Berlin bypass became the first section of US 113 to become a divided highway in the mid-1950s." SandyGeorgia (Talk) 01:34, 3 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Why the hyphen on one use of US 113 and not the other? "... the final section of two-lane US–113 in that state was expanded in the mid-1990s. The Berlin bypass became the first section of US 113 to ..." SandyGeorgia (Talk) 01:36, 3 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

"Known as Worcester Highway, the highway runs ... ", but there is no redirect at Worcester Highway. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 01:37, 3 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Please address the issues above; I'd let this run longer pending more non-road editor review, but it's sat here for three weeks already with little review, so ... SandyGeorgia (Talk) 01:40, 3 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.