right-of-way

[¦rīt əv ¦wā]

(civil engineering)

Areas of land used for a road and along the side of the roadway.

A thoroughfare or path established for public use.

Land occupied and used by a railroad or a public utility.

right-of-way

Any strip or area of land, including surface and overhead or underground space, which is granted by deed or easement for the construction and maintenance of specified linear elements such as power and telephone lines; roadways; gas, oil, water, and other pipelines; sewers.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Right-of-Way

of railroads, a strip allocated from a country’s lands for a railroad and all of its facilities, such as the roadbed, buildings, and station platforms.

In the right-of-way the permission to erect buildings and other structures is granted only to the railroad. In practice, the width of the right-of-way is no less than 24 m. At railroad stations the width can be considerably greater, because in addition to the railroad tracks, all the structures, buildings, and service facilities of the railroad are located on the right-of-way. In areas where there is drifting of snow or sand, the width of the right-of-way is increased to allow for protective tree plantings.

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References in periodicals archive

We assessed natural movements of nontranslocated southern red-backed voles, North American deermice, and least chipmunks to determine whether individuals crossed the right-of-way. These movements were compared to movements of individuals at control sites.

Habitat preference (right-of-way, edge, forest) at powerline sites was determined using a chi-square test of independence.

Each powerline site was separated by [greater than or equal to] 150 m along the right-of-way, and each control site was [greater than or equal to] 300 m from the right-of-way.

Vegetation in the right-of-way included bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta), common lupine (Lupinus argenteus), and several graminoids.

Selection of sites was based on successional stage of the right-of-way, accessibility, and permission from the United States Forest Service.

Although our study was limited to one season and suffers from a limited sample and the influence of riparian habitats, we believe that some general inferences can be made for management of small mammals along powerline right-of-ways. Retention of downed woody debris in ski runs benefits the southern red-backed vole (Hadley and Wilson, 2004b).

Powerline right-of-ways can form a barrier to movements of small mammals (Schreiber and Graves, 1977; Quarles, 1978; Gates, 1991; Goosem and Marsh, 1997).

Along powerline right-of-ways, small mammals generally are most abundant in species-specific habitats (Quarles, 1978; Johnson et al., 1979).

Dense vegetation in powerline right-of-ways previously have been shown to benefit small mammals by providing runways and nesting sites (Johnson et al., 1979).

Structure and movements of a community of small mammals along a powerline right-of-way in subalpine coniferous forest