It’s time for spring cleaning!
Seasonal maintenance operations are underway with litter collection, street sweeping, tree maintenance and more
With April in full bloom, we know you want to take advantage of the warmer weather! Don’t worry – our dedicated Public Works crews have begun their annual spring maintenance efforts around the community so you can enjoy Vaughan’s public spaces all season long.
Here is an update on our seasonal operations:
Litter cleanup
The City’s spring-cleaning blitz began in March after the winter thaw, with crews collecting litter from Vaughan’s parks and open spaces, including paths, trails, sidewalks, boulevards and horticulture features. The City’s litter collection vacuum is also working along City sidewalks to pick up litter and debris. This innovative tool is one of the many ways Public Works staff are enhancing and expanding resources to stay on top of litter. So far, 844 bags of litter have been collected from City property this year.
Street sweeping and road maintenance
The City's street-sweeping program began earlier this month. It 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 watercourse pollution, sewer backups and road flooding. The City performs street sweeping across approximately 7,000 kilometres of roads annually. Street sweeping will continue throughout the spring and summer, into fall.
Trees
Forestry operations are in full swing, with crews working proactively to service approximately 20,000 trees in 2026. This year’s program continues to improve safety in our community, strengthen tree health and enhance service reliability across Vaughan.
The Forestry Operations team has completed 605 pruning requests, 162 removal requests and inspected 230 service requests so far this year. Any hazards that need to be removed, such as fallen branches, are responded to in a priority sequence.
Potholes
Throughout the year, staff perform routine patrols across the City’s 2,200 lane-kilometres to help keep Vaughan’s roads in a state of good repair. To date, City crews have repaired more than 650 potholes this year. The City also inspects more than 1,200 lane-kilometres of sidewalks annually for any defects and will schedule repairs – this work is ongoing throughout the spring and summer.
You can report potholes or cracked and damaged asphalt to Service Vaughan at 905-832-2281, service@vaughan.ca or online through vaughan.ca/ServiceVaughan.
Boulevards
The City’s boulevard maintenance program began in early April. Staff tend to 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. Our boulevard maintenance includes regular grass cutting, debris removal and leaf mulching.
Grass cutting
The City’s crews take care of grass in more than 200 parks and more than 800 hectares of open spaces, such as boulevards and sports fields. To maintain the grass and keep the weeds at a minimum, grass in these areas is cut on a two-week rotation starting late April until October. Each park is inspected by City staff after the grass is cut to ensure service levels are met. If an area happens to be missed or requires further maintenance, it’s addressed within 24 hours.
Shrubs, flowers and more
Shrub bed planting and maintenance (including pruning, mulching, weeding, litter cleanup and watering) will begin in June and continue throughout the season. A total of 582 hanging baskets and 370 planters will be installed across the city.
Fire hydrants
Crews will soon begin annual inspections of more than 10,000 fire hydrants. 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
As part of routine water system maintenance, annual inspections and exercising programs will soon begin on nearly 3,000 water distribution valves. This proactive work helps ensure Vaughan has an efficient and reliable water distribution system and focuses on critical areas of City infrastructure.
Catch basins
The City removes sediment and debris from the bottom of 10,000 catch basins starting in May. Catch basins in residential areas are cleaned on a three-year rotation and catch basins in industrial areas are cleaned annually. Cleaning the inside of catch basins is an important control measure taken to ensure the proper flow of stormwater. Removing sediment, debris and pollutants from inside catch basins reduces the risk of flooding and prevents contaminants from entering nearby watercourses.
Stormwater management ponds
The City maintains more than 160 stormwater ponds in the community. The annual stormwater management pond maintenance program begins in May and wraps up by October each year. This timeline ensures the ground and bank slopes have stabilized to support the work. During this seasonal maintenance, three rounds of litter cleanup and grass cutting will be completed at each pond. Litter is collected before grass cutting, which will take place along the perimeter of the ponds. Crews completing this work move through the city from east to west on a block-by-block basis during each round of maintenance.
Pavement markings
The City’s pavement marking program will begin in May, and typically continues until November, depending on the weather. The City painted approximately 610,000 metres of road markings in 2025. Annually, the City refreshes existing pavement markings, which include centrelines, lane lines, crosswalks, stop bars and directional arrows. New pavement markings are also implemented to improve traffic operations city-wide.
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. Approximately 16,000 signs were inspected in 2025. Traffic signs identified through the inspection program were repaired over the winter. Annual inspections for 2026 will take place through the summer.
Traffic-calming measures
Installation of seasonal traffic-calming measures, such as in-road flex signs, speed radar boards and speed cushions, has commenced citywide and will continue throughout the spring.
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 spring-cleaning operations, visit vaughan.ca/seasonal.
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