Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. Roads/Newsletter/Issues/Volume07/Issue03

Volume 7, Issue 3 • Summer 2014 • About the Newsletter

In this issue As summer is rapidly coming to an end, The Center Line is finally publishing the issue for the summer quarter. In this truncated issue, we will update some items from around the project and discuss the future of the project's newsletter. As always, those involved in editing and assembling the newsletter each quarter would like to hear from you.
Featured story The U.S. Roads Portal: A great gateway to the project Contributor: Dough4872 Logo used for the U.S. Roads Portal According to WP:PORTAL, "The idea of a portal is to help readers and/or editors navigate their way through Wikipedia topic areas through pages similar to the Main Page. In essence, portals are useful entry-points to Wikipedia content." The U.S. Roads project has a portal at P:USRD, which serves as a gateway to U.S. road articles to readers and editors. The portal starts with an overview of the main road systems in the U.S. such as Interstates, U.S. Routes, state routes, and scenic byways. The portal also lists recent news events pertaining to roads across the country. Every month, the portal features a different selected article, selected picture, and Did you know? hooks. The selected article showcases a short blurb of a high-quality (GA, A, FA) USRD article. The selected picture shows a picture of a U.S. road, ranging from a two-lane country road to an urban freeway. The Did you know? sections features five interesting facts from U.S. road articles. Through the work of Imzadi1979 and other USRD editors, the USRD portal has attained featured portal status, meaning it is among the best of portals on Wikipedia. In order to maintain our portal and help it keep its featured portal status, we need your help. Recommendations for selected article, selected picture, and Did you know? hooks are always needed. The recommendation pages can be found here for selected article, here for selected picture, and here for Did you know? hooks. In addition, any recent events pertaining to U.S. roads can always be added to the U.S. Roads news section.
HWY Cup a success in improving the articles of WikiProject Highways Contributors: Dough4872, TCN7JM HWY Cup logo Over the course of the summer, WP:HWY editors from around the globe participated in the HWY Cup. This competition encouraged editors to improve various aspects of road articles, from content creation, to media such as maps and KML files, to participation within the project by reviewing articles at ACR and FAC, and more. The HWY Cup began on June 1 with a field of thirteen editors from multiple countries around the world. As June turned to July, and then August, the field was narrowed from thirteen editors in Round 1 to seven editors in Round 2, and finally down to just four editors in Round 3. The Cup concluded at the end of August with Mr. Matté winning it all! Rcsprinter came in a close second place, Fredddie took third, and Floydian brought up the rear. Congratulations to Mr. Matté on winning the HWY Cup, and thanks to all thirteen editors for participating this year.	Discussing the future of The Center Line Editor: Imzadi1979 For a second issue in a row this year, The Center Line has yet again been severely delayed. As a reminder to all readers, the newsletter relies on submissions of content. If no content is submitted, nothing can be published. If no one steps up to help produce content for The Center Line, this could be the last issue produced. If you would like to continue to see the newsletter in the future, we need ideas for articles, updates on what is going on in individual states and even op-ed columns. Submissions can be made at Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. Roads/Newsletter/Newsroom at anytime. Traditionally, The Center Line is supposed to be published during the latter half of the first month of each calendar quarter, so late January, April, July and October, and the 15th of those months is set as the nominal deadline.
State and national updates
Assessment roundup Contributor: Dough4872 Here's a list of the top ten states as of September 29, 2014. Rank State FA A GA B C Start Stub ω Ω 1 Michigan 24 8 172 9 0 0 0 379 1.7979 2 Delaware 1 0 53 3 6 0 0 139 2.206 3 New York 12 3 195 330 109 27 0 1954 2.891 4 Washington 0 2 72 78 53 5 1 623 2.953 5 Maryland 4 1 65 344 47 7 0 1386 2.962 6 New Jersey 1 2 102 47 18 81 0 824 3.283 7 Utah 4 3 16 64 131 6 1 787 3.498 8 Iowa 2 1 18 17 87 11 0 491 3.610 9 Arizona 1 0 13 17 46 20 0 361 3.722 10 Oklahoma 2 0 14 67 37 58 0 667 3.747 The top ten states remain in the same order again, with WikiWork increasing or decreasing depending on state. Two of the top 10 states (Washington and Utah) have each gained a stub. Project FA A GA B C Start Stub Total ω Ω USRD 64 24 935 1327 2789 4584 1644 11367 49815 4.382 IH 18 2 47 41 233 226 0 567 2281 4.023 USH 14 4 57 33 204 331 1 644 2694 4.183 Auto trail 7 0 5 1 10 28 7 58 235 4.052 Since our last issue in June we have had a net loss of 35 stubs. We have gained two featured articles, both out of the Midwest. These new featured articles were U.S. Route 31 in Michigan and U.S. Route 141.	Task force reports No reports were submitted for this issue.
Selected articles April The MetroPath footbridge marks the entrance to SR 878 at its eastern terminus at US 1, near South Miami State Road 878 (SR 878), named the Snapper Creek Expressway for its entire length, is a 2.7-mile-long (4.3 km) east–west electronic toll road south of Miami, Florida. The expressway is named for the nearby Snapper Creek which runs parallel to SR 878. It acts as a spur route of the Don Shula Expressway (SR 874), providing access to U.S. Route 1 (US 1) near South Miami and local access to the eastern Kendall area while bypassing the Dadeland district. The road is maintained and tolled by the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX).	Selected pictures April The George Washington Memorial Parkway near Rosslyn, Virginia along the banks of the Potomac River, as seen from the Key Bridge.
May US 6 between Newton and Grinnell U.S. Highway 6 (US 6) is an east–west U.S. Highway which runs 319 miles (513 km) across the U.S. state of Iowa. The route is signed in places as the Grand Army of the Republic Highway. The route begins at the Missouri River crossing at Council Bluffs. From there, it travels east to Atlantic. North of Atlantic, the highway overlaps Interstate 80 (I-80) until De Soto. Between De Soto and Adel, the highway overlaps US 169 before splitting off to the east towards Des Moines, where it closely follows the I-35 / I-80 corridor. At Altoona, the route again overlaps I-80 until Newton, where it splits away. The highway passes near or through several more cities before entering the Coralville / Iowa City area. From Iowa City, the highway heads to the east-southeast. Near Wilton, the route heads north to I-80 where it again overlaps to Davenport. At Davenport, US 6 then follows I-280 and US 61 before entering the city. On the eastern side of Davenport, it joins I-74 and enters Bettendorf before leaving Iowa for Illinois. Dating back to 1910, the route US 6 follows was originally part of the Great White Way and River-to-River Road auto trails which connected Council Bluffs and Davenport. When the U.S. Highway System was created in 1926, the highway was designated U.S. Highway 32. US 32 was renumbered in 1931 to US 6. As the Interstate Highway System expanded in the 1950-1970s, US 6's importance as a cross-state route was diminished by I-80. As a result, some sections of the route were moved onto I-80.	May Interstate 440 in Nashville, Tennessee.
June SR 56 west at the Carmel Creek Road interchange State Route 56 is an east–west state highway in the U.S. state of California. It runs 9.210 miles (14.822 km) from Interstate 5 (I-5) in the Carmel Valley neighborhood of San Diego to I-15 and the western end of the Ted Williams Parkway. SR 56 serves as an important connector between I-5 and I-15, being the only east–west freeway between SR 78 in north San Diego County, several miles away, and SR 52 near Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. It is also named the Ted Williams Freeway, after the San Diego-born baseball player. SR 56 was added to the state highway system in 1959 as Legislative Route 278, and was renumbered SR 56 in the 1964 state highway renumbering. Plans in 1964 were to connect SR 56 to the north end of SR 125 and continue east to SR 67, but these plans did not come to fruition. The eastern end from Black Mountain Road to I-15 was completed in 1993; the western end from I-5 to Carmel Creek Road was completed in 1995 after several lawsuits filed by the Sierra Club and other community groups. The two ends were not connected until the middle portion of the freeway was completed in 2004. The delay was largely due to funding issues and environmental concerns.	June U.S. Route 201 along the Kennebec River near Bingham, Maine.
From the editors The next quarterly issue should be out in October or November 2014. 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 next issue released for the fall. Any and all contributions are welcome. Simply let yourself be known to any of the undersigned, or just start editing!	Contributors to this issue Dough4872 (contributor) Imzadi1979 (editor) TCN7JM (contributor)

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