Spring, Summer, & Fall Operations

From the City of Ottawa operations

In these updates, we/our refers to the City of Ottawa's operations crews.

Street Sweeping

Operations Underway (April 10, 2025)

It has been a long, busy winter season, but don’t look now, spring is here – finally! And you know what that means, right? It’s time for the Roads and Parking Services team to shift their focus to cleaning up our communities from the mess winter leaves behind. This winter season seemed like it was never going to end, but the days are getting longer and it’s time to enjoy springtime activities. An important part of our spring maintenance is street sweeping operations; this activity ensures areas such as sidewalks, roads and the cycling network are clear of debris. City-wide street sweeping operations take place in suburban and rural neighbourhoods. Today, we are happy to announce that city-wide street sweeping operations are underway! Move over snowplows, here come the street sweepers! 

How long will it take?

Street sweeping operations are an essential part of cleaning up the transportation network, and our Maintenance Quality Standards (MQS) require us to complete them by May 31st. Street sweeping typically begins as early as the weather will allow and occurs during both daytime and nighttime shifts. But when the overnight temperature drops below zero, operations must be paused as the water we use on the road can form into ice, creating dangerous conditions.

Because of recent winter-like weather and colder temperatures, this spring’s cleanup and street sweeping activities are starting later than usual. Timelines may be impacted but we will do our best to stay on schedule – either way, you can rest assured that regular updates will be provided as we progress through our spring cleanup efforts.   

How is city-wide street sweeping completed?

City-wide street sweeping is done in phases: 

• Sidewalks, bus stop pads and medians are cleaned first by a variety of methods using sidewalk sweepers, leaf blowers, flusher trucks and hand brooms.

• A sidewalk sweeper will work in the area first, pushing grit, debris and dust onto the roadway. A vacuum sweeper or mechanical sweeper truck then picks up the majority of grit, debris, small particles and dust removing it from the road.

• This operation might be repeated several times to ensure a clean surface. If vehicles are parked on the street, the unswept area is noted, and crews will return to sweep that portion at a later date.

There are no parking restrictions in effect during city-wide street sweeping operations.

Street sweeping in concentrated areas

In urban neighbourhoods that support continuous on-street parking year-round, we complete what is known as concentrated street sweeping. Concentrated street sweeping operations are an important and necessary requirement in the urban neighbourhoods to efficiently move through the streets. Unlike city-wide street sweeping operations, parking restrictions are in effect in neighbourhoods where concentrated street sweeping is underway. Residents are required to move their cars to allow street sweeping operations to be completed, and signage will be posted to alert residents when these operations are scheduled to take place.

Concentrated street sweeping operations began on April 7th. While its sweepers had to take a brief three-day pause because of Monday’s winter-like event, they are now back on the roads and operations have since resumed. Weather permitting, concentrated street sweeping is expected to be completed on April 18th.

Resident support is required

• Residents are reminded to not rake or blow leaves, lawn clippings or other debris onto the roadways as it can make our operations more challenging, especially if the area has already been swept.

• There are no parking restrictions during city-wide street sweeping operations. However, we encourage anyone who can to please remove vehicles from the roadway to allow the street sweeping teams to complete their clean-up efficiently.

We recognize that street sweeping operations can be noisy and disruptive, for the short period in which they take place. However, they are an essential part of our spring clean-up efforts and as such; the City of Ottawa’s street sweeping operations are exempt from the Noise By-law (No. 2017-255) under Section 21(1) and may run at any time.

More information about our street sweeping operations is available on Ottawa.ca/springmaintenance.  

Spring Flooding and Freshet

Pre-Freshet Update (March 5, 2025)

Rideau River Flood Control Operations

Potholes

See our potholes section!