another reason canadian roads jog about so much
& are indeed often centered right on borders
is what is called the road allowance
a peculiarly homegrown adaptation within canadas otherwise
perfect knockoff of the jeffersonian public land survey system
used in the usa
while south of the border the road right of ways were frequently
just mutually contributed & shared by adjacent 6milesquare
townships or 1milesquare sections
in canada the township size was enlarged & the sections
spaced out so as to incorporate a network of public corridors or
road allowances 66 feet wide at regular intervals
of from 1 to 3 sections or miles
depending on local factors
as well as surrounding all townships
& wherever townships are not exactly aligned with their
neighbors owing to the earths curvature
their road allowances must jog correspondingly
also
since absk at lloydminster happens to follow a principal
meridian in the public land system
it seems a foregone conclusion that the road allowance there
must be shared by both townships & thus by both provinces
the 4 towers may well have marked the outer edge of this road
allowance tho
& indeed they look to have been just about the necessary 33 feet
from the road centerline for them to have done so
--- In
BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, Doug Murray
<doug@d...> wrote:
>
> This news article says they're gone:
>
> http://www.marnieko.com/towers.htm (dated Sept 10, 2001)
>
> But I would think that they are back if the Lloydminster city site
has
> them on their website.
>
> This got me thinking about Jesper's question as to the actual
location
> of the border. I doubt Alberta would build a highway right on
the
> border. My thinking is that the border should be on the east
side of
> the highway. Of course, as our border expeditions have
shown, borders
> don't follow logic!
>
> Doug