Spring cleaning continues!
Seasonal maintenance operations are underway with litter collection, street sweeping, pothole repairs and more
Spring is in full swing, and our dedicated Public Works crews are working hard 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 continue throughout the spring and summer for a total of 13 cycles, each running for two weeks. It may appear your local park has longer grass than normal – and that’s likely because of the recent weather conditions. The combination of sunny days and lots of rain creates ideal conditions for quick growth. Rest assured, our crews are running on schedule!
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. Madvac – the City’s litter collection vacuum – is working along City sidewalks to pick up litter and debris. Look out for Madvac in your neighbourhood! This innovation is another way Public Works staff is enhancing and expanding resources to stay on top of litter cleanup. So far, approximately 346 tonnes of litter have been collected from City property this year.
Shrubs, flowers and more
Shrub bed planting and maintenance (including pruning, mulching, weeding, litter cleanup and watering) will take place regularly throughout the season. A total of 735 hanging baskets and 800 planters will be installed across the city beginning the week of June 2. This year, crews are also renovating approximately 35 garden beds across the city, 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 7,000 kilometres of roads annually. Street sweeping will continue throughout the spring, summer and into the fall.
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 grass cutting and removal of debris and leaves. Approximately 339 tonnes of litter and garbage from illegal dumping have been removed so far this year from City boulevards and rights-of-way.
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 660 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.
Trees
Regular tree maintenance is operating at full capacity. Work is underway to prune approximately 25,000 trees in 2025. This year’s program is Vaughan’s largest so far, marking a new era of proactive service delivery for the City’s urban forest.
The Forestry Operations team has serviced 817 pruning requests, 328 removal requests and inspected 632 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 150 stormwater ponds in the community. The annual stormwater management pond maintenance program has begun and will wrap up by October. 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 takes 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.
Catch basins
In May, the City completed removal of sediment and debris from the bottom of 10,000 catch basins. 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 helps reduce the risk of flooding and prevents contaminants from entering nearby watercourses.
Fire hydrants
Crews have begun annual inspections of more than 10,000 fire hydrants, with 1,931 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 will soon begin annual inspections and exercising programs on almost 3,000 water distribution valves. 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 will begin in June and continue through to November. Annually, the City refreshes existing pavement markings, 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.
More than 300 in-road flex signs have been installed so far, with an additional 200 expected to be installed this summer.
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 16,500 signs were inspected last year. Starting in January, staff began repairs to traffic signs identified through the inspection program. Inspections and repairs are expected to continue throughout the summer.
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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