Spring Road Restrictions in Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan

Spring road restrictions are temporary axle weight limits that a province puts on roads weakened by the spring thaw. In Ontario the limit on designated highways is 5,000 kg per axle (what drivers call half load), Manitoba cuts axle weights to 90% or 65% of legal limits, Alberta road bans set 75% or 90% of axle weights, and Saskatchewan reduces weights by 10 to 15 per cent on secondary highways and municipal roads.

None of the four provinces publishes exact dates in advance. Each sets the start and end from thaw and weather conditions, issues orders during the season and expects carriers to check before every trip. Municipalities, counties and rural municipalities set their own limits on their own roads, so a provincial order never covers every road a truck uses.

Under section 122 of Ontario's Highway Traffic Act, no commercial motor vehicle or trailer may run on a designated highway during a reduced load period with more than 5,000 kg on any axle. Two-axle tank trucks carrying only heating fuel, two-axle trucks carrying only livestock feed, and vehicles carrying live poultry are allowed up to 7,500 kg per axle.

The 5,000 kg limit does not apply to municipal highway maintenance vehicles (including salting, sanding and snow removal), vehicles carrying only milk, fire apparatus, municipal waste vehicles, public utility emergency vehicles, or buses carrying passengers for compensation beyond a single municipality.

An MTO official designates the start and end dates and the King's Highways the period covers, and a municipality can do the same for its own roads by by-law. That is why county and township half load dates differ from the provincial ones. For 2026, Ontario 511 listed three MTO schedules with windows of March 1 to April 30, March 1 to May 31 and March 1 to June 30, with reduced loads imposed on the listed highways when appropriate.

Annual and project overweight permits are not valid on provincial highways in March and April in Southern Ontario, or in March, April and May in Northern Ontario, unless the permit says otherwise. Check the Seasonal Loads page on Ontario 511 for MTO designations, and each municipality's website for local roads.

Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure runs a Spring Road Restrictions (SRR) program with two levels. Level 1 applies to weak pavements and limits most axle groups to 9 kg per millimetre of tire width, up to 90% of legal axle group weights. Level 2 applies to very weak pavements: 6.5 kg per millimetre of tire width, up to 65% of legal axle weights.

Steering axles have their own limits. Under Level 1, a single steering axle on a single or tandem drive tractor is limited to 10 kg per millimetre of tire width, up to 5,500 kg. The table shows the province's example for a tandem drive tractor and semi-trailer on 305 mm (12 in.) tires, with the legal weight in brackets.

Manitoba has five climate zones. The earliest start dates are March 1 for Zone 1, March 6 for Zones 2, 3 and 4, and March 12 for Zone 5; the latest end dates are May 29, May 31 and June 10. A start can be delayed in a late thaw and an end brought forward, based on the trend of the thawing index in each zone. In 2026, Order No. 2 set start dates of March 20 in Zone 1, April 7 in Zones 2 and 3, April 9 in Zone 4 and April 13 in Zone 5, and the province announced end dates from May 19 (Zone 1) to May 31 (Zone 5).

The restricted roads are listed in the Spring Road Restrictions Order, which the province publishes in the fall from the previous year's data and updates as needed. Essential commodities, such as livestock feed, grain going to processors, bulk milk, groceries, fuel, fertilizer and medical supplies, may move at normal loading on Level 1 roads, and on Level 2 roads under conditions set in the order. Check manitoba.ca/mti/srr and Manitoba 511 throughout the season.

In Alberta, a road ban limits the weight that a commercial vehicle's carrying axles may put on a highway to a percentage of their normal maximum. Section 12 of the Commercial Vehicle Dimension and Weight Regulation lets the Minister set road bans as required, and the provincial Road Ban List shows each banned highway section at 75% or 90% axle weight.

Some vehicles are exempt from a road ban, including vehicles whose axles carry a combined gross weight of 5,000 kg or less, school buses, rubber-tired farm tractors not pulling a trailer, vehicles crossing a highway, and vehicles hauling fresh milk or cream, eggs or pregnant mare urine from where they are produced. Vehicles hauling bread, mail, heating fuel or fertilizer, and buses other than school buses carrying passengers, may carry up to 90% of the maximum axle weight on a banned road; vehicles hauling domestic drinking water, up to 80%. Other vehicles can apply for a road ban exemption permit through the Central Permit Office.

The Road Ban List changes through the year as bans are added and lifted (the list effective July 15, 2026 still had highway sections at 75% and 90%). For provincial highways, see the Road Ban List on alberta.ca, call 1-855-ROADBAN (1-855-762-3226), or subscribe to the province's road ban and seasonal weight email notifications. Bans on local roads are set by counties and municipal districts.

Saskatchewan's spring weight restrictions reduce allowable vehicle weights by 10 to 15 per cent on secondary-weight provincial highways and rural municipal roads, according to the Ministry of Highways. They usually start in the southwest, spread across the province over two to three weeks, and can stay in place for up to six weeks. In 2026 they began at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, March 20 in southwest Saskatchewan.

During the ban period, official orders are issued every Tuesday and Friday (except Good Friday) by 12:30 p.m. CST and take effect the following Thursday or Sunday at midnight; restrictions can change with 48 hours' notice. Under a spring restriction, a steering axle is limited to 10 kg per millimetre of tire width, up to 5,500 kg on a single steering axle, and other axles to 6.25 kg per millimetre of tire width, up to 1,650 kg per tire (2,630 kg for single tires 445 mm or wider).

Nine-month primary highways drop back to secondary weights each spring: March 15 to June 15 in the south and April 1 to June 30 in the north. Rural municipalities set their own limits on their roads. Check the Spring Road Bans order on saskatchewan.ca, the Highway Hotline (511), or the Trucking Inquiry Line at 1-866-933-5290.

A geofence drawn around a restricted highway section or climate zone records when each truck enters and leaves it, and the trip history shows which truck ran where on each date. Dispatch can plan loads around each province's orders and check afterwards which trips used restricted roads. GPS does not weigh the load; it shows where and when a truck travelled.

High Point GPS is a Montreal fleet telematics company and Geotab partner, founded in 2013, that installs and supports GPS tracking for over 500 fleets across Canada and the United States, in English and French. For Quebec, our guide to the période de dégel covers the thaw zones, the load limits and how the dates are set.