service road

service road (plural service roads)

1. A relatively narrow road which runs alongside a major transportation route, such as a canal, a railway line, or a controlled-access highway.
   • 2006 December 3, John R. Quain, “Real-Time Traffic Reports? Get Real”, in New York Times, retrieved 28 July 2014:

     t can only pinpoint phones to within a few hundred feet. That makes it difficult to tell if a signal is coming from a vehicle on the highway or from one on a parallel service road.

   • 2014 April 30, Hannah Spray, “GPS tracking led police to Woods's body”, in Faceoff.com, Canada, retrieved 28 July 2014:

     RCMP issued a news release reporting that a passing motorist had found a woman's body in a ditch next to a service road adjacent to Highway 16.

2. A route which enters or circulates through an institution, compound, land area, etc. for purposes of private access, maintenance, or security.
   • 2004 December 8, Karen Skyes, “Hike Of The Week”, in Seattle Post-Intelligencer, retrieved 28 July 2014:

     From the day-use area behind Longmire Lodge, we walked up the service road behind the ranger station and employee housing.

   • 2007 February 1, “Pieces of WTC found beneath road”, in USA Today, retrieved 28 July 2014:

     Large steel columns from the fallen World Trade Center have been found beneath a service road being excavated at Ground Zero.

   • 2012 May 12, Laura Barton, “A walk in the grounds of Dunham Massey”, in The Guardian, UK, retrieved 28 July 2014:

     We walk the service road, past the stables, up the slope, to where the watermill stands.

• (road alongside a major transportation route): frontage road, parallel road
• (road which enters or circulates through a defined area): access road, driveway (US)

• “service road”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.