Keeping Vaughan safe, clean and beautiful

Spring maintenance continues with pothole repairs, installing planters, grass cutting and more

The City of Vaughan is continuing its spring-cleaning efforts to keep the city’s public spaces safe, clean and beautiful for your enjoyment. Here is an update on our operations:

Potholes

City crews have repaired more than 2,000 potholes this season. Throughout the year, staff perform routine patrols across the City’s 2,200 lane-kilometres of roads to help keep them in a good state of repair. Watch this video to see how potholes are repaired!

Parks and open spaces
Grass cutting in parks and open spaces is well underway – grass is cut regularly in each park throughout the spring and summer. For more information, visit the City’s Grass Cutting and Weeds webpage.

Shrubs, flowers and more

Shrub bed planting and maintenance (including pruning, mulching, weeding, litter cleanup and watering) takes place regularly throughout the season. Staff started installing hanging baskets and planters across the city this week. A total of 550 hanging baskets and 600 planters will be installed by mid-June.

Street sweeping and road maintenance

The City's street-sweeping program began in April and will continue throughout the summer and into the fall. Street sweeping prevents unwanted materials from flowing into stormwater drains, river pollution, sewer backups and road flooding. More than 2,700 kilometres of street sweeping have already been completed this year.

You can support our street-sweeping operators by following these guidelines:

• Do not park vehicles on the road.
• Do not blow or rake leaves or grass clippings onto the roadway.
• Keep waste materials off the road.

You are also encouraged to remove anything from your property that may interfere with or be hazardous to street-sweeping operators. This includes landscaping features, such as fencing, basketball nets, decorative stones, pots, bird baths, furniture and more, as stated in the City’s Encroachment By-law 034-2017 (PDF). These items should not be within 30 centimetres of a sidewalk or one metre of a street curb.

Litter cleanup

The City’s spring-cleaning blitz continues with crews collecting litter from Vaughan’s parks, open spaces, City boulevards and sidewalks, paths and trails. The City uses Madvac – an innovative litter collection vacuum that targets hard-to-reach areas – to collect litter and debris from the ground. An additional three machines were added to the fleet this season, so look out for Madvac in an area near you! This innovation is another way Public Works staff enhance and expand resources to stay on top of litter.  

You can help keep the community clean by following these tips:

• Put waste in its place: while outside, place your waste in the nearest garbage, blue box or green bin. Be sure to use the right one!
• Bag it and bin it: when walking outside with your pets, clean up after them and use the waste bins provided. If the bins are full, take your garbage and pet waste home. It belongs in the green bin at home or waste bins out in the community. As a reminder, you must pick up after your pet. The fine for failing to do so is $200. To report pet waste on public property, contact Service Vaughan at 905-832-2281 or service@vaughan.ca.

Boulevards

The City maintains municipally-owned boulevards along roadways that are not in front of or adjacent to private property. Maintenance of boulevards on private property is the landowner's responsibility, including side lots. Boulevard maintenance includes regular grass cutting, which is cut every ten business days, and removal of debris and leaves. Approximately 27,000 kilograms (59,520 pounds) of litter and illegal dumping have already been removed this year from City boulevards and the right-of-way.

Traffic services

The City’s crews are refreshing road pavement markings (which divide traffic lanes or indicate pedestrian crossings) and installing seasonal flexi-posts. To date, more than 245,600 metres of road pavement markings have been repainted. The City is also expanding its pavement marking initiatives, including “Slow School Zone” stencil markings and enhanced crosswalk ladder markings at school crossing locations to further promote safer school zones and road safety.

Water maintenance
In April, the City began its annual inspection of fire hydrants and continues to flush watermains and cycle valves to keep pipes clean, clear and operational. Staff have inspected more than 1,900 fire hydrants so far. The City has also attended water shut-off and turn-on requests, which increase during the spring and summer. Non-emergency water shut-off and turn-on requests can be made online and must be submitted four to six weeks before the service is required.

Request maintenance services online

Did you know you can request repair and maintenance services online through Service Vaughan? Through the online portal, you can request maintenance for:

• curbs, sidewalks or interlocks
• new pavement markings
• parks, playgrounds or splashpads
• roads and boulevards
• sports fields, courts or skate parks
• and much more!

Once a ticket has been created, staff will respond to each request in a priority sequence.

To learn more about the City’s spring operations, visit vaughan.ca/seasonal.

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