Winter road

Winter roads are temporary highways carved out of snow and ice. They facilitate transportation to and from communities without permanent roads, and are commonly seen in sparsely populated regions in Canada's north and in Russia.

Winter roads enable goods to be brought into communities without permanent road access. In many of these communities, air transportation is used at other times of the year to bring in goods including food and supplies, but this can be prohibitively costly for bulky goods such as building supplies and heavy equipment. These roads are generally built in areas where construction of year-round roads is expensive due to many river crossings, and the presence of boggy muskeg land. When frozen in winter, these obstacles are easier to cross. These frozen highways are more economical than a full highway, and have less impact on the environment.

Winter roads are extensively used in the oil patch for drilling in remote locations in Alberta and British Columbia during the winter, and for access to remote communities, including Indian reserves, in the northernmost parts of many Canadian provinces.