DCHP-1 Online

right-of-way

• 1 † n. a strip of land granted or sold to a company for the construction of a railway, power line, etc.

  • 1911  (1914)  Then the right-of-way cutters, who cut down and burn the timber and brush to a width of a hundred feet.
  • 1966  Hydro uses muskeg vehicles . . . in maintenance work along its right-of-way.

• 2 n. Esp. West a strip of land between surveyed concessions, ranges, sections, etc., retained by the municipality for the construction of a road.

  See also: road allowance (def. 1)  

  • 1895  The right-of-way for the new road has been procured for almost the entire distance.
  • 1957  Right-of-way maintenance has been improved, and all right-of-ways are now mowed.
  • 1963  . . . modern highways would not carry heavy traffic loads if the soft "black dirt" on right of ways had not been excavated and replaced with firm aggregate.