A range road in Canada is a road that runs north–south along a range grid line of the

Dominion Land Survey The Dominion Land Survey (DLS; french: links=no, arpentage des terres fédérales, ATF) is the method used to divide most of Western Canada into one-square-mile (2.6 km2) sections for agricultural and other purposes. It is based on the layout ...

. Range roads (Rge. Rd.) are perpendicular to township roads (Twp. Rd.) which run east–west along the

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, ...

grid lines.

Western Canada

In western

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

(especially rural areas in most

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

and

municipal district A municipal district is an administrative entity comprising a clearly-defined territory and its population. It can refer to a city, a town, a village, a small grouping of them, or a rural area. Brazil In Brazil, municipal districts are, in g ...

s in

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...

), a range road (abbreviated "RGE. RD.") is a road running on a north–south parallel to a

range line Range Line is an unincorporated community in Eagle Creek Township, Lake County, Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital ...

(a line denoting the east and west boundaries of a x legal

in the

and

Alberta Township The Alberta Township System (ATS) is a land surveying system used in the Canadian province of Alberta and other parts of western Canada. History and background In principle there is a mathematical basis for the Alberta Township System (ATS) variant ...

land surveying systems).

Alberta

Range roads are commonly numbered in one-mile (1.6-km) increments west from the east range line of a given township. The range roads form the east and west boundaries (known as Section Lines) of the 1 mile x 1 mile square sections - 36 of which comprise a township (e.g. Range Road 12-2 would be between the second and third sections west of Range line 12, Range Road 6-0 is on Range line 6). In many counties, the dash between the range line number and the section line number is eliminated (Range Road 15-1 (151) might be called "Range Road one-fifty-one"). Where a township road offset from a section line, it is often appended with a letter (Range Road 11-1A is just west of the first section line west of Range line 11). This system is useful for finding farmsteads (assuming one knows the legal address of the parcel). Range roads are perpendicular to

township road A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

s (abbreviated TWP. RD.). In

Foothills County Foothills County is a municipal district in southern Alberta, Canada adjacent to the south side of Calgary in Census Division No. 6. Despite sharing a common border with the City of Calgary, it does not form part of the Calgary census metropol ...

, the range and township road naming system has been replaced with a more conventional "street/avenue" numbering scheme. Range roads are

street A street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of di ...

s numbered west and east of the Fifth Meridian (Meridian Street) in increments of 16 streets to the mile. Township Roads are avenues numbered on a similar grid to the city of

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

(the boundary lies between 190th and 220th Avenue) and extends out to 722nd Avenue. This system causes confusion at the southern boundary of the City of Calgary as streets in Calgary are numbered east and west of Centre Street, which is some distance west of the Fifth Meridian. Therefore, street numbers change as one crosses

's southern boundary.

Saskatchewan

In Saskatchewan there are both township and range roads. The numbers of the range roads help to establish the location of the roads as they exist with relation to the legal land description survey system. Range roads travel in a north and south direction between the meridians parallel to the latitudinal lines. Range roads indicate firstly the meridian number. In Saskatchewan roads near the Manitoba border would begin with 1 as they would be west of the prime or first meridian, then the range numbers would be west of the second and finally west of the 3rd meridian. There are no roads in Saskatchewan west of the fourth meridian as the fourth meridian line defines the border between

and

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

. The next two digits would be the range number which increments from east to west from a meridian line. The last range number shows how many miles within the range the road is located starting at the easternmost edge of the range and traveling west. As they mark a definite location such as a longitudes and latitudes, the naming convention is the same across Saskatchewan. Township and Range roads can be either gravel, highway, or municipal paved road. The Dominion Land Survey system designated a township road allowance every two miles apart south to north, and allowed for a range road allowance every mile apart east to west. Due to the curvature of the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's sur ...

, some townships adjacent to major Meridian lines (e.g. the Fifth Meridian - 114°W) are truncated. There are more townships between meridian lines along the 49th

Parallel Parallel is a geometric term of location which may refer to: Computing * Parallel algorithm * Parallel computing * Parallel metaheuristic * Parallel (software), a UNIX utility for running programs in parallel * Parallel Sysplex, a cluster o ...

(the boundary between

and the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

) than there are along the 60th Parallel (the boundary between Canada's southern

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

and northern

territories A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

References

{{Road types Geography of Canada Types of roads

Western Canada

Alberta

Saskatchewan

See also

References