Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Washington State Route 504/archive1

Washington State Route 504

 * Nominator(s):  Sounder Bruce  06:14, 25 November 2019 (UTC)

This article is about the highway that leads up to Mount St. Helens, which famously erupted on May 18, 1980, in spectacular fashion. Most of the road was destroyed by the lahar deposits, which tumbled down the Toutle River Valley at extreme speeds. Even today, almost 40 years later, the new highway snakes its way through a landscape that still has scars from the eruption. This article was promoted to GA last year and hasn't changed significantly, but I believe it is up to the standard I set with my previous road FAs.  Sounder Bruce  06:14, 25 November 2019 (UTC)


 * I do intend to review the article in the next few days. --Rschen7754 04:34, 30 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Lead
 * Maybe a bit nitpicky but you have two sentences starting with "The highway" right next to each other in between the first and second paragraph.
 * Fixed and took the opportunity to expand the second instance.
 * Sources
 * Should The Oregonian have the location indicated since it isn't in the title? Same with The Oregon Daily Journal, The Daily Chronicle, The Columbian, The News Tribune.
 * I would assume that local newspapers wouldn't need location information, as all four are well known in Western Washington.  Sounder Bruce  04:05, 8 December 2019 (UTC)
 * San Diego Union-Tribune before 1992 was either The San Diego Union or Evening Tribune.
 * Fixed.
 * It is Evening Tribune with no San Diego in front of it. --Rschen7754 02:17, 10 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Fixed.
 * More later. --Rschen7754 18:12, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Route description
 * ascending - do we need a topo source for that?
 * I wrote this based off the terrain layer in Google Maps, but if necessary I can use a pair of USGS topographic maps that split this section of the highway.
 * The highway continues through a partial cloverleaf interchange - with what?
 * Fixed by adding the access road bit.
 * Is 2016 the latest data available for traffic counts? --Rschen7754 02:17, 10 December 2019 (UTC)
 * WSDOT does not publish a traffic data report beyond 2016. The new portal doesn't have complete data and is harder to use, so I'd rather keep the old style as this route shouldn't have a drastic change in traffic counts.
 * History
 * and it began construction in 1959 - the state legislature? I assume not.
 * Fixed.
 * opened to traffic - the designation?
 * Fixed.
 * Preliminary plans for a new highway to the north side of Mount St. Helens were approved by the state government in 1986 - the significance could be explained a bit better. To replace the part of the road that was destroyed?
 * Added "replacement"
 * The state department of transportation - can we say WSDOT? --Rschen7754 02:00, 14 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Fixed. That should do it.  Sounder Bruce  05:38, 14 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Support issues resolved. --Rschen7754 05:58, 14 December 2019 (UTC)

Image review


 * File:WA-504_St._Helens_Bridge_after_1980_eruption.jpg: source link is dead. Nikkimaria (talk) 15:05, 1 December 2019 (UTC)
 * I was unable to recover the original gallery link (as it seems the USGS has completely changed their website again), but did add an alternative link to the same image in a different gallery.  Sounder Bruce  05:14, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

Source review
buidhe 05:14, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

SG
Glacing in, problems apparent in the lead. Skipping down to "Recent history" (a breach of MOS:DATED)
 * State Route 504 ... is a state highway in southwestern Washington state ... It travels 52 miles Poor usage, the road is traveling, can be rephrased.
 * ... remained popular with loggers and tourists, Loggers took that route to work because it was pretty?
 * lahar in the lead-- don't require the reader to click out to get a basic definition ... lahar (mud and debris flow)
 * The state government rebuilt most of the highway from 1988 to 1997, ... well, the government contracts the rebuilding ... Most of the highway was rebuilt from 1988 to 1997 ... if state government is important, then explain why
 * ... "relocating it further north and connecting to new interpretive centers at Coldwater Ridge and Johnston Ridge." and connecting it ??
 * What is this trying to say? "The 7-to-17-mile (11 to 27 km) route, connecting Coldwater Lake to the existing Forest Highway 99 near Windy Ridge and beyond to Forest Highway 25"? Is it 7 from Coldwater to 99, and then 10 more beyond that?  Confusing construct.
 * "WSDOT studied several options for the proposed highway, which enjoyed mixed public support, and estimated a cost of $18.5 million to construct one option and $44 million for another (equivalent to $25.6 million and $60.9 million, respectively, in 2018 dollars)." How can "mixed" public support be enjoyable?  Re-cast the sentence to cut the length.  Get whatever it is about public support into one sentence, cost estimates in another.
 * "An average of 50 vehicles use the road on a daily basis, according to annual daily traffic data measured by WSDOT in 2016.[23]" Daily usage averaged 50 vehicles in 2016, according to WSDOT?

These are samples only: an independent copyedit may be helpful. Sandy Georgia (Talk)  17:54, 22 December 2019 (UTC)


 * There has been no response on the FAC, and one edit to the article since my comment of 22 December. The WP:FAC instructions say that nominators are expected "to make efforts to address objections promptly".  Sandy Georgia  (Talk)  22:53, 29 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Apologies for not responding to this one, it got buried in some of the other stuff I've been doing lately. Frankly, I don't think this one will survive through the process, so I'd rather withdraw the nomination. Thank you for your comments, I'll get around to hammering them out at another time.  Sounder Bruce  06:22, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

Ian Rose (talk) 07:03, 30 December 2019 (UTC)