Winter Road Maintenance

Winter Driving

The District of Saanich has a Snow and Ice Control Program. The program intends to keep municipal roads drivable under winter road conditions. Snow and ice control services cannot eliminate all hazardous conditions on municipal roads.

Motorists should use caution during winter road conditions. If you must go out, drive according to the road conditions in a vehicle properly equipped for winter driving or use BC Transit.

Road Safety & Clearing Priorities

Public Works makes use of external meteorological services to monitor winter weather and respond accordingly. Depending on the event, we may pre-treat roadways with anti-icing brine solution and/or salt, sand, or plow based on priority routes set out in the Snow and Ice Control Program.

There are approximately 600 km of road network in the District. As such we must coordinate the most efficient and effective deployment of our snow and ice control resources. Unfortunately, our trucks and crews can’t be everywhere at once. Therefore, we must follow our established routes and priorities in a systematic and timely manner.

Our first priority routes include:

  • Major and collector streets consisting of high-volume roads and streets that connect us to our transportation system.
    • Examples of major streets include McKenzie, Quadra, Shelbourne, and Cedar Hill
    • Examples of major collectors include North Dairy, Feltham, and Reynolds
  • Designated BC Transit bus routes including specific transit hubs and major bus shelters.
  • Pre-identified steep hills
  • Emergency service facilities such as police and fire stations and ambulance stations.

In-case of heavy snowfall or prolonged snow events:

Treating of first priority routes will continue. Once these routes remain drivable under winter road conditions, we then start treating our second priority routes (lower traffic volume minor collector roads and residential streets

  • If we are clearing our second priority routes and it starts snowing again, we will re-direct our resources back to the first priority routes.

Our second priority routes include:

  • Lower traffic volume minor collector roads and residential streets

    • Priority is given to lower traffic volume minor collector roads and residential streets scheduled for greener garbage collection during the snow event to ensure collection continues.

    • Examples of minor collectors include: Queenswood Drive, Thornhill Crescent, Dean Avenue, Salsbury Way, Savannah Avenue, McBriar Avenue, Sunnymead Way, Wascana Street, Charlton Road, Beaver Lake Road, Hunt Road