Dominion Land Survey - Road Allowances

Road Allowances

Between certain sections of a township run "road allowances" (but not all road allowances have had an actual road built on them). The road allowances add to the size of the township (they do not cut down the size of the sections): this is the reason base lines are not exactly 24 miles (39 km) apart. In townships surveyed from 1871 to 1880 (most of southern Manitoba, part of southeastern Saskatchewan and a small region near Prince Albert, Saskatchewan), there are road allowances of 1+1⁄₂ chains (30 m) surrounding every section. In townships surveyed from 1881 to the present, road allowances are reduced both in width and in number. They are 1 chain (20 m) wide and run north–south between all sections; however, there are only three east–west road allowances in each township, on the north side of sections 7 to 12, 19 to 24 and 31 to 36. This results in a road allowance every mile going east-west, and a road allowance every two miles going north-south. This arrangement reduced land allocation for roads, but still provides road-access to every quarter-section. Road allowances are one of the differences between the Canadian DLS and the American Public Land Survey System, which leaves no extra space for roads.