Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Michigan State Trunkline Highway System/archive1

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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 GrahamColm 14:41, 1 May 2013 (UTC) [1].[reply]

Michigan State Trunkline Highway System

Michigan State Trunkline Highway System (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

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Nominator(s): Imzadi 1979 → 18:11, 9 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This article has been years in the making; it uses tidbits of research collected from nearly 200 articles on individual state highways in Michigan in addition to books and articles about the state highway system itself. May 13, 2013, will mark the centennial of the state's highway system, and although time is short, I am optimistic that this article can be reviewed in time to be promoted and run as a TFA for that anniversary. Imzadi 1979 → 18:11, 9 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Lead
  • U.S. and then US right in the first sentence.
  • I don't get the feeling that "size" is the right word here.
  • These may be remnants of decommissioned highways that are still under state control or segments left over from realignment projects. - This sentence gives me pause. If it was decommissioned then how can it still be under state control?
Usage
  • Michigan highways are properly referred to using the M and never as Route n or Highway n, but as M-n. - bit of a bold statement to not be sourced. Perhaps saying that the DOT refers to them with the M might cover it.
Numerical duplication
  • In fact - needs comma after
Highway systems
  • In addition - needs comma after.
  • New paragraph - not sure why we need "roughly"
County roads
  • There exists - can we make this active? actually seeing a lot of passive in the entire section.
  • They - starting two sentences in a row.
19th century
  • Native-American - why the hyphen?
  • What are location streets?
  • Maps of the territory where - were?
  • The paragraph starting with "Townships" should probably be split.
  • The first roads were corduroy roads. To build these, logs of all sizes were placed across the road. - please combine
  • the state was prohibited from being "a part to, or interested in, any work of internal improvement". - is this what you're referring to in the lead? If so it needs to be a bit more specific.
  • The inflation citations should not have the primary citations after them - the other ones should be moved to before the parentheses.
  • Able-bodied men residing in a local road district were expected to pay his road taxes by performing 30 days of labor on the roads in his district. - agreement issues
  • Only 1,179 miles (1,897 km) of the 5,082 miles (8,179 km) of plank roads authorized by the state were ever built by 89 of the 202 chartered plank road companies. - not exactly sure what you're getting at here
  • national president - of what?

More later. --Rschen7754 08:43, 12 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Changes made for the above. Please me know if anything still needs updates or tweaks. Imzadi 1979 → 10:09, 12 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Early 20th century
  • Need comma after (MSHD) as that's an appositive.
  • Comma after Instead
  • When was the concrete roadway on M-1 laid?
  • improved (200 miles - stray (
  • jurisdiction - why not say state?

Will continue a bit later. --Rschen7754 08:58, 13 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Mid-20th century
  • Image spacing could be a bit better - getting some text compression on my 20 inch monitor.
  • Where those revenues - whereas?
  • and he worked -> and worked?
  • Also check for duplicate links - User:Ucucha/duplinks.js is helpful.
  • He was also opposed to the idea because the state had three east–west freeways under planning or construction. - comes off as choppy.
  • post war -> post-war? --Rschen7754 11:06, 13 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Late 20th century
  • During the 1960s or 1970s -> and?
  • Additionally, both The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press opposed the project. - again a bit choppy
  • led by then-Chairman Carl Levin - need comma after
  • stated the project, "will cause - but no comma there
  • Reference/inflation ordering again
Future
  • Lots of "project" - try rewording

Overall this article is very well-researched; it just needs a few minor issues fixed before I can support. --Rschen7754 11:32, 13 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, I applied fixes for everything. Let me know if the first paragraph of the "Usage" section is better. I'm unsure what to do about the image placement; the text looks ok on my monitor. Imzadi 1979 → 12:06, 13 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Support. I stumbled here from my FAC, so I thought I'd review it. Go road and hurricane articles! The two FA's that most people are sick of :P

  • Do you have a measurement of overall miles as of 2013?
  • "under a mile (1.6 km)" - this is awkward if it's under a mile. Why not give the exact measurement so the km isn't so exact?
    • I swapped in a little more precise figure, however there is actually an unsigned highway downtown Detroit (Business Spur I-375) that's shorter at around 882 feet, but I'll stick with the rounded figure of 3/4 mile from M-212, which is signed. Imzadi 1979 → 09:20, 26 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Perhaps a dumb question, but is there any official (Michigan gov't) stance on "an M-" versus "a M"? I see the article uses "an M-", but I figured I'd ask.
    • Every MDOT document that I've seen that even comes close dodges this by using "I-, US, or M-" as their description of the state highway system, never singling out the individual letters. I just stuck with what sounds best and used "an". Imzadi 1979 → 09:20, 26 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • "The freeway between Flint and Standish carries both the I-75 and US 23 designations for around 75 miles (121 km) as just one example of the phenomenon." I'd put from "as just one example" at the beginning of the sentence and add a comma. Otherwise it's a bit of a runon.
  • Any reason you don't say how much money the federal government provides in aid for roads each year? The current "third" is ambiguous.
  • "that criss-crossed the state" - is the "criss" portion needed?
  • "These trails were pathways no wider than approximately 12–18 inches (30–46 cm) permitting single-file traffic." - I think a comma is needed after cm)
  • "this provision took ended" - unless I'm misreading, the "took" isn't needed
  • "state highway commission and state highway system" - surely there's some way to rewrite that to avoid saying "state highway" twice?
  • "Michigan was the first state to complete a border-to-border Interstate Highway in 1960 with the completion of I-94]." - since 94 connects with Canada, does that count? Also, what's with the bracket? Something missing?
    • Bracket dropped, but this is where that claim gets a little sticky. The part of I-94 from Detroit to Port Huron was originally going to be I-77, so when I-94 was "finished" in 1960, it only ran from New Buffalo to Detroit and didn't reach Canada. I've run into similar claims, but unlike those, the I-94 claim keeps getting repeated by official sources. (I-75 was "finished in the state" in 1970, but the reporter that said so in his article overlooked the fact that between Bay City and Grayling, I-75 was using the US 10 and US 27 freeways as a temporary routing while M-76 was still being converted for the permanent I-75.) Imzadi 1979 → 09:20, 26 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

All in all pretty good, as to be expected from a Michigan road article :) --♫ Hurricanehink (talk) 02:40, 26 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Well, thank you, I do try to keep the level of quality up on my home state's highway articles. Imzadi 1979 → 09:20, 26 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the quick change, all of your changes work well :) --♫ Hurricanehink (talk) 21:35, 26 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support – content represents a good mix of conceptual overview and specific examples of each aspect and anomaly discussed. I did a little bit of copyediting on the article recently, but made no major changes, and I think it's a fine article at this point. Juliancolton (talk) 03:34, 30 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
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