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Behind-the-Wheel

Dealing with snow plowed across the end of your driveway

Don't plow me In!

No one likes to spend significant effort to clean the snow off of their driveway only to have a snowplow come by and fill in the highway (roadway) end of it all over again.

Most of us grumble and get to work, but an Errington man decided to stand in the way and prevent the grader from doing this to his driveway.

In what almost became more ways than one, he didn't have a leg to stand on.

Your “kingdom” ends at the property line and property for the highway (road) begins on the other side.

In order to build on your driveway access, you may need permission from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure if you live outside of a municipality. One term of that permission is you are responsible for all maintenance including clearing snow from highway plowing operations at the access entrance.

Driveway construction and maintenance within a municipality is governed through bylaws.

Most municipal bylaws are available on the Internet these days but information about your responsibilities may be obtained by contacting your local bylaw department. Remember, municipal bylaws may not be uniform throughout the province.

Rural road maintenance (outside municipal boundaries) is conducted by private contractors.

The specifications they must follow include a chapter on highway snow removal. Roadside snow and ice control are dealt with in 3-320, but driveways are not specified as part of the services required.

One might be tempted to push all that snow right back out onto the road where it came from.

While it might be satisfying, there are two reasons that this would be a poor decision to make. The Transportation Act forbids causing anything to be deposited on public highways without authorization in section 62(1).

If a collision resulted from the snow you moved onto the traveled lanes, you could be liable to a civil action for damages. The outcome of the civil suit could be very costly to you as it would not be covered by insurance.

The Transportation Act also forbids obstructing or preventing another person from engaging in any activity if that activity is authorized by the act.

Contracting out highway maintenance is an activity within the many powers granted to the minister. The maintenance contractor operates under the authority of the minister.

Considering that we want speedy snow clearing from highways and not to have to spend more than we already do on taxes for road maintenance, perhaps the status quo is acceptable, even if it means we have to shovel again after the plows pass by.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.



More Behind the Wheel articles

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About the Author

Tim Schewe is a retired constable with many years of traffic law enforcement experience. He has been writing his column for most of the 20 years of his service in the RCMP.

The column was 'The Beat Goes On' in Fort St. John, 'Traffic Tips' in the South Okanagan and now 'Behind the Wheel' on Vancouver Island and here on Castanet.net.

Schewe retired from the force in January of 2006, but the column has become a habit, and continues.

To comment, please email

To learn more, visit DriveSmartBC



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The views expressed are strictly those of the author and not necessarily those of Castanet. Castanet does not warrant the contents.

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