The utilization of local saline groundwater plays an important role in agricultural production in saline area to overcome freshwater shortage. Three-year field experiment was conducted in Hetao Irrigation District of China to evaluate the variation in water, EC_e and SAR in heavy saline-alkali soil under freezing saline water irrigation (FSWI) in winter. Two treatments, FSWI and non-irrigation (CK), were designed, the irrigated water with salinities ranged from 6.59 to 8.25 dS m⁻¹ and irrigation level of 180 mm were applied for FSWI. During saline ice melting and infiltrating, the soil EC increased initially and then decreased gradually, which continuous increased under CK. In the first year of experimentation (2017), after saline ice melted and infiltrated, the soil EC_e and SAR within 0–20 cm layer under FSWI decreased to below 9.14 dS m⁻¹ and 8.39 (mmol L⁻¹)^0.5, respectively, while which increased to 30.21 dS m⁻¹ and 20.49 (mmol L⁻¹)^0.5 under CK. During the seedling stage of maize, the soil EC_e and SAR were maintained at 9.93 dS m⁻¹ and 6.13 (mmol L⁻¹)^0.5 under FSWI. The subsequent rainfall in summer decreased the soil EC_e and SAR further, ensuring the normal growth of maize, with biomass of 9.2 t ha⁻¹ was obtained. Under CK, the higher soil EC_e and SAR resulted in small biomass of maize (0.75 t ha⁻¹). Similar variation trends in the soil EC_e and SAR were observed in 2018 and 2019. Over three years of experimentation, 65.1% and 42.06% of the total salt loads migrated out of 0–40 and 0–100 cm soil layers under FSWI, respectively, values that were significantly higher than those under CK. Moreover, the fractions of larger water-stable aggregate size were increased under FSWI compared with that under CK. Therefore, FSWI significantly improved the properties of the heavy saline-alkali soil in Hetao Irrigation District.