Malahat traffic comes to a crawl after semi-truck gets stuck in snow

A semi-truck got stuck on the Malahat highway on Tuesday afternoon amid heavy snowfall in the region.

DriveBC highway cameras show the semi-truck blocking northbound traffic near the intersection of Highway 1 and South Shawnigan Lake Road around 3:30 p.m.

Stewart Westwood with Emcon Services says the semi-truck did not have proper tires on when it started driving up the snow-covered highway.

The stuck semi-truck is shown. (DriveBC)

Between Oct. 1 and April 30, semi-trucks must carry and equip tire chains on the Malahat highway when there is snow and ice.

Personal commuter vehicles must have winter tires – marked with either an M+S symbol or snowflake inside of a mountain symbol – during the same time period on the Malahat each year.

Last week, the province said it was planning to perform overnight work on the Malahat near Tunnel Hill.

The work was expected to bring the highway down to single-lane alternating traffic between 11 p.m. on Nov. 29 to 5 a.m. on Nov. 30.

The province says that overnight work may be delayed due to winter conditions. No decision had been made yet as of Tuesday afternoon.

Tuesday's winter storm also affected BC Ferries sailings to and from Vancouver Island, as well as bus schedules in Greater Victoria.