Fall cleanup is underway
Litter collection, street sweeping, pothole repairs and more!
Throughout fall, our dedicated Public Works crews continue their hard work to keep Vaughan’s public spaces safe, clean and beautiful for your enjoyment.
Here is an update on our seasonal operations:
Grass cutting
Bi-weekly grass-cutting began in April and will be completed by the end of October.
Maintenance of grass along regional roads, such as Major Mackenzie Drive, Rutherford Road, Bathurst Street, Keele Street and Dufferin Street, is the responsibility of York Region.
Litter cleanup
Crews continue to collect litter from Vaughan’s parks and open spaces, such as paths and trails. Our mechanical litter collection vacuum is working along City sidewalks to pick up litter and debris. Look out for one in your neighbourhood! This innovation is another way Public Works staff are enhancing and expanding resources to stay on top of litter cleanup. So far, approximately 986 tonnes of litter have been collected from City property this year.
Shrubs, flowers and more
Shrub bed maintenance (including pruning, mulching, weeding, litter cleanup and watering) takes place regularly throughout the season. Crews have completed the seasonal switch from summer to fall planting across the city, including 1520 mums, 420 cabbage, 300 kale and 127 pepper plants. This year, crews also renovated approximately 35 garden beds, refreshing these spaces to enhance their beauty and health.
Street sweeping and road maintenance
The City's street-sweeping program began in April and takes approximately eight to 10 weeks to complete one cycle across the city, depending on the weather. This process prevents unwanted materials from flowing into stormwater drains, causing river pollution, sewer backups and road flooding. The City performs street sweeping across approximately 2,100 lane kilometres of roads annually and continues into the fall. Round three of the City-wide street sweeping program is expected to be completed by Nov. 7.
Boulevards
The City maintains municipally owned boulevards along roadways not in front of or adjacent to private property. Maintenance of boulevards on private property is the landowner's responsibility. The City’s boulevard maintenance includes regular removal of litter, debris and illegal dumping. The final round of boulevard grass cutting for the season was completed in October.
Potholes
Staff perform routine patrols across Vaughan’s 2,100 lane-kilometres of roads to help keep them in good condition. To date, City crews have repaired more than 3,545 potholes this year. The City also inspects more than 1,200 lane-kilometres of sidewalks annually for any defects and will schedule repairs as needed – this work is ongoing into the fall.
You can report potholes or damaged asphalt to Service Vaughan at 905-832-2281, service@vaughan.ca or online through vaughan.ca/ServiceVaughan.
Trees
Regular tree maintenance operated at full capacity this year. The Forestry Operations team has serviced 1,717 pruning requests, 785 removal requests and inspected 3,309 service requests so far this year. Any hazards that need to be removed, such as fallen branches, are responded to in a priority sequence.
Stormwater management ponds
The City maintains more than 160 stormwater ponds in the community. The annual stormwater management pond maintenance program will wrap up by the end of October and resume in May 2026. This year’s program included three rounds of litter cleanup and grass cutting at each pond. Litter was collected prior to grass cutting, which took place along the pond perimeters. Crews completed this work moving through the city from east to west on a block-by-block basis during each round of maintenance.
Fire hydrants
Crews are continuing annual inspections of more than 10,000 fire hydrants, with 9,734 inspections completed so far this year. Preventative maintenance and inspections are performed annually on each hydrant across the city and include flushing, leak testing, cap lubrication and part replacements.
Water valve exercising
Crews continue annual inspections and exercise programs on almost 3,000 water distribution valves, with 1,101 completed so far this year. This proactive work ensures Vaughan has an efficient and reliable water distribution system and focuses on critical areas of city infrastructure.
Pavement markings
The City’s pavement marking program began in June and will continue through to November. The City refreshes existing pavement markings annually, which include centre-lines, lane lines, crosswalks, stop bars, stencil markings and directional arrows. New pavement markings are also implemented to support evolving traffic demands and improve traffic operations city-wide. The annual refresh of centre-lines and lane lines is complete, with approximately 600,000 metres of markings refreshed. The refresh of transverse markings, including crosswalks, stop lines, symbols, hatching, stencil markings and more, is currently underway with approximately 90 per cent of the work complete.
Traffic-calming measures
Seasonal traffic-calming measures, such as in-road flex signs and speed cushions, are installed over the spring, summer and early fall. Speed cushions were installed at eight locations this year, and more than 700 in-road flex signs were installed. Removal of these seasonal measures is underway and anticipated to be completed by early November to prepare for winter maintenance operations. Select flex signs remain installed year-round based on roadway characteristics.
Sign retro-reflectivity inspections
Signs are considered essential to communicating regulatory, warning and guidance information. The City inspects key traffic signs for reflectivity at night to ensure traffic signs meet the minimum level of retro-reflectivity, as part of the City’s maintenance standards. Annual sign inspections of approximately 16,000 traffic signs are now complete. The repair program for deficient signs will begin during winter months.
Request maintenance service online
Did you know you can request repair and maintenance services online through Service Vaughan? Through the online portal, you can request:
and much more!
Once a ticket has been created, staff will respond to requests in priority sequence.
To learn more about our seasonal maintenance operations, visit vaughan.ca/seasonal.
For updates and news as they happen, subscribe to Vaughan News and follow the official corporate channels on X, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
