Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. Roads/Newsletter/Issues/Volume04/Issue02

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In this issue Welcome to the spring issue of the USRD newsletter. In this edition, we pass along an update on this year's stub reduction drive and the beginnings of an inter-project collaboration for the Mother Road being started as a new USRD taskforce. Unfortunately, we have some sad news to pass along this time as well. As always, there are the usual state updates, the leaderboard and a recap of the articles and photos selected for the portal.
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 * Featured story
 * Featured story

Stub drive continues on

 * Contributor: Dough4872

On April 1, the U.S. Roads Wikiproject stub goal passed a new milestone: 3900. As of May 13, the stub count for USRD is down to 3784, which is a loss of 751 stubs since January 1. There are 1260 more stubs that need to be improved by December 31 in order for USRD to remove 2011 stubs in 2011. Over the course of the past few months, there have been stub reduction throughout the US. The states of Indiana and New Jersey have been completely destubbed during this period. In addition, the stub count has fallen significantly in several states such as Alabama, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. As milepost resources have been found for certain states, the potential for completely destubbing states has increased. In order to get an article from stub to start, all that is needed is a route description and a junction list. To help us reach our goal, jump in and help improve some stubs!
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User Vaoverland passes away

 * Contributor: Rschen7754

It is with a sad heart that we say goodbye to one of our editors. User:Vaoverland passed away on April 30, 2011. Mark D. Fisher was 59 years old and used to own Virginia Overland Transportation, a school bus company. On Wikipedia, Vaoverland edited many of the Virginia road articles, including West Virginia Turnpike, Virginia State Route 5, and Virginia State Route 161, and also Carl G. Fisher. He was also an administrator on the English Wikipedia. Our condolences go out to him and his family.


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Get your kicks with the US 66 task force

 * Contributor: Fredddie

Starting this May is a new task force for WP:USRD. The U.S. Route 66 task force will be collaboration between USRD and other projects, such as WikiProject United States History (WP:USHIST), and maybe more. The goal is to find history buffs, and maybe a few new roadgeeks, from around the wiki who can help improve U.S. Route 66, currently a C-Class article, and any related articles. It's brand new and we're just starting to get organized, so there's not much to report now. Stop back for updates or click the task force link above and sign up!


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 * State and national updates
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Assessment roundup

 * Contributor: Pzoxicuvybtnrm

In the past several months, progress was made to improve the project's articles. No states pushed below the 4.0 barrier, but three are very close. Here's a look at the top ten as of the May 12, 2011, update. States in italics are task forces. Unlinked states have no project.

In the past months, Delaware pushed up from rank 6 to rank 2. Michigan stays at the top, while New Jersey and New York follow Delaware. Maryland surpassed Utah, and Arizona's relative Wikiwork went slightly below those of Minnesota and Iowa. Meanwhile, Washington holds its ground at position 7. Check out WP:USRD/A/S for current stats, updated daily.

Taking a look at the project as a whole:

The project lost one A-class article but was made up with a net gain of 5 featured articles in the past quarter. Meanwhile, USRD members are busy at GAN and a net 89 good articles were gained since January. Even more impressive is that 634 stubs were removed as part of the 2011 stub goal. See the above section for further updates on the goal.


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Project reports
Work continues on destubbing CA articles and writing route descriptions. There are now 17 stubs remaining in California, and the relative WikiWork is now 4.358. SR 7 and SR 57 were recently brought to GA.—Rschen7754
 * California

In the beginning of February, the majority of Delaware's remaining start-class articles were improved to B-Class by Dough4872. This was accomplished through the addition of history and the addition of references to the route description in articles. U.S. Route 113 also became Delaware's first Featured Article courtesy of Viridiscalculus. As of April 4, Delaware currently has only 5 Start-Class articles remaining and has the second lowest relative wikiwork (Ω) after Michigan.—Dough4872
 * Delaware

Maryland gained its first Featured Article in 17 months when U.S. Route 113 was promoted to the highest class of articles on April 3. This concludes a journey that lasted almost a year from US 113's expansion from C-Class to Good Article status in April 2010. The article was gradually expanded and revised through September before undergoing its A-Class Review through the end of the year. After US 113 was promoted to A-Class at the very beginning of 2011, the highway article underwent further expansion and revisions before entering the Peer Review process at the end of February and becoming a Featured Article Candidate in the latter half of March. With this latest top quality article, Maryland now has four Featured Articles: US 113, MD 36, I-68, and U.S. Route 40 Alternate (Keysers Ridge – Cumberland, Maryland).
 * Maryland

In the past three months, Maryland has also gained nine Good Articles: Interstate 81 in Maryland, MD 16, MD 18, MD 24, MD 222, MD 228, MD 231, MD 291, and MD 322. Viridiscalculus has systematically improved almost every article in Charles, Calvert, Harford, and Frederick counties to a minimum of B-Class since January. Combined with the articles of highways from the counties of the Maryland Eastern Shore, Western Maryland, and St. Mary's County that were improved in 2010, the majority of highway articles in Maryland are now in a position to become Good Articles with minor expansion and polishing.—Viridiscalculus

Since the beginning of the year, Michigan has gained two Featured Articles (M-6, U.S. Route 131) and has a third nominated with Brockway Mountain Drive. Long-range plans are to nominate M-185 later this year. Every county in the state has at least one Good Article on a highway now; some counties have all of their highways' articles at GA status now. The goal of the state project is to continue revising articles to send them to GAN for review and promotion for the rest of the state. In the leaderboard, the state already has 110 GA-Class or better articles versus 110 B- and C-Class articles—Imzadi1979
 * Michigan

In conjunction with the 2011 stub drive, the process of destubbing articles in Pennsylvania has begun. As of the last newsletter, there were 280 Stub-Class articles in Pennsylvania. As of May 15, the current stub count is 218, which is a loss of 62 stubs. This work has brought Pennsylvania under 250 stubs as well as under 5.0 for relative wikiwork (Ω). Credit goes to Dough4872 and Mitchazenia for destubbing articles.—Dough4872
 * Pennsylvania


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Selected articles
U.S. Route 199 (US 199) is a U.S. Highway in the U.S. states of California and Oregon. The highway was established in 1926 as a spur of US 99, which has since been replaced by Interstate 5 (I-5). US 199 stretches 80 mi from US 101 near Crescent City, California northeast to I-5 in Grants Pass, Oregon. The highway is the northern portion of the Redwood Highway. In Oregon, US 199 is officially known as Redwood Highway No. 25. The majority of the road in California is the Smith River Scenic Byway, a Forest Service Byway. This route is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System and is eligible for the State Scenic Highway System. The first roadway, a plank road, from Crescent City was established in May 1858, and before the US 199 designation was applied to the highway, the roadway was designated Highway 25 and Route 1.
 * February
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Selected pictures
Interstate 40 near Flagstaff, Arizona. Interstate 70 (I-70) in the U.S. state of West Virginia crosses the Northern Panhandle region, through Ohio County and the city of Wheeling. The shortest segment of I-70 in any state it crosses is the segment in West Virginia, spanning 14.45 mi across the panhandle. The portion of the route in West Virginia begins on a bridge between the eastern border of Ohio, over the western channel of the Ohio River, crossing onto Wheeling Island. The Fort Henry Bridge carries I-70 across the main channel of the Ohio River and onto mainland West Virginia.
 * February
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 * March

The city of Wheeling sits on the eastern banks of the Ohio River, and I-70 passes over the town on an elevated structure before entering the Wheeling Tunnel. On the other side of the tunnel, the highway meets the eastern terminus of I-470, a bypass of Wheeling. Before the highway crosses into Pennsylvania, I-70 passes The Highlands, a major shopping center in the panhandle. The first portions of the freeway were opened in 1963, and construction was completed in 1971. On average, between 32,000 and 60,000 vehicles use the freeway every day. Legacy Parkway northbound near Centerville, Utah. The South Pole Traverse, also called the McMurdo – South Pole Highway, is an approximately 900-mile (1450 km) compacted snow road in Antarctica that links the United States' McMurdo Station on the coast to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Completed during the 2007–2008 austral summer season, it was constructed by leveling snow and filling in crevasses, but is not paved; flags mark its route.
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 * April Fool's Day

The project was funded by the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) to provide a lower cost, potentially more reliable method of supplying the South Pole Station. The traverse saves an estimated 40 flights and lowers the carbon footprint over the use of aircraft. A NSF press release from February 7, 2006, stated that 110 tons (99,790 kg) of cargo had been successfully delivered overland to the South Pole Station in a "proof of concept" of the highway. Drivers along U.S. Route 26 in Oregon are reminded that Portland is only 20 mi away.
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 * April Fool's Day
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From the editors
The next quarterly issue should be out in July. The editors of the newsletter would like to hear from you, the reader. What do you like about the current format? What should be changed? Removed? Added? Your comments are needed.

Lastly, remember that this is your newsletter and you can be involved in the creation of the next issue released in the summer. Any and all contributions are welcome. Simply let yourself be known to any of the undersigned, or just start editing!


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Contributors to this issue

 * Dough4872 (contributor)
 * Fredddie (contributor)
 * Imzadi1979 (editor)
 * Pzoxicuvybtnrm (contributor)
 * Rschen7754 (editor emeritus)
 * Viridiscalculus (contributor)
 * }