Spring Clean-up street cleaning

Watch for signs in your community indicating when your street is scheduled for sweeping.

Sign-up to receive an email notification 24 hours before your street is scheduled to be swept. You must login or register with a myID account to sign up.

You can also use the address lookup above or Roads Virtual Agent, RoadBot by clicking on the red button at the bottom of the page.

Spring Clean-up is a city-wide street sweeping program that takes place in Spring every year. The City sweeps over 17,000 lane km of paved roads in a planned effort to keep the city clean and safe for pedestrians, motorists and cyclists. Spring Clean-up also reduces water pollution by preventing the run-off of sanding materials and debris from entering our water system.

Street sweeping typically runs from the middle of April until July each year. During the program, daytime crews will sweep in neighbourhoods, Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Major roads are swept overnight (9 p.m. - 6:30 a.m.) to reduce traffic impacts. There will be no sweeping on Statutory Holidays.

​Most large municipalities in Canada start their sweeping programs in April due to the need for warmer temperatures for equipment to operate and streets free of snow and ice.

It’s not unusual for a spring snowfall or heavy rainstorm, and in that case sweeping activities are suspended. If we do experience a late spring snow event City crews will perform regular snow maintenance, as necessary. In rare cases, technical issues with sweeping equipment may also cause delays.

If your street is missed due to an unexpected delay, the scheduled date will be moved to a later date. We encourage everyone to sign-up to receive an email notification 24 hours before your street is scheduled to be swept. You must login or register with a myID account to sign up.

If debris is left behind on your street because a car or cart has not been moved and you want to be a good neighbour, you can sweep the debris yourself. If you decide to sweep missed debris yourself, please follow these suggestions from Waste & Recycling:

• Use garbage bags when cleaning up gravel, dust, rocks and other debris. Do not leave debris loose in your black cart. This will help keep the air free of dust and keep collection trucks clean as well.
• Heavy road debris needs to be double-bagged to avoid punctures and rips in the bags. Try to keep the weight down to under a 20kg (45 pound) weight limit and don't overload the black cart.
• For your collector’s safety, place all bagged debris inside your black cart for removal.

If you do not move your vehicle from the road when street cleaning is scheduled, you may receive a ticket and, in some cases, your vehicle can be towed.

A community-wide parking ban is in effect when Street Sweeping Signs with “No Parking” decals are placed around a community during Spring Clean-up. Residential street sweeping bans occurs Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Any vehicle that has not been removed from the street for the duration of the ban in the area is subject to ticketing.

Vehicles are subject to be ticketed and towed if the small 3-feet high "No Parking" signs are placed along the road. They will be placed at least 24 hours prior to street sweeping. If vehicles are towed:

• to a nearby space, the vehicle owner will be issued a street sweeping ticket.
• to an impound lot, the vehicle owner pays the ticket, tow, and impound fee.

Please follow on-street signage for street sweeping, as any vehicle that has not been removed is subject to ticketing and/or towing during the dates and times on posted signage. If the information in the online schedule differs from on-street signage, the posted signage prevails.

When the street cleaning signs are up and vehicles are still on the road, crews will sweep around vehicles.

(Source: Calgary Parking)

Subdivision roadways are the responsibility of the developer until they receive a Final Acceptance Certificate (FAC) from The City of Calgary. At that time, The City assumes responsibility for maintaining the subdivision’s roads.

If you have front street collection, place your blue, black and green carts on the end of your driveway or grass boulevard or your lawn next to the curb on collection day. Once street cleaning is complete, you can put your carts out as normal on collection day.

Back lanes are not part of The City’s annual street sweeping program. A small portion of paved back lanes in hilly locations have material applied during the winter to enable cart collection. This material is typically swept by mid-June.

City crews clean sanding materials off sidewalks and boulevards on major roads only.

If you are parking in a backlane or alley during sweeping, be mindful of where you park.

Keep entrances to backlanes/alleyways clear. Park your car at least 5 metres (16 ft) away from an alley entrance. Leave at least 3 metres (10 ft) of clearance in alleyways/backlanes for passing. This applies to parked vehicles, carts, and other property stored in the back alley.

Ensure you are leaving space around garage and driveway entrances. In alleys, the driveway or garage entrance no parking zone stretches across the width of the alley. If you park in front, or within 1.5 meters, of a driveway or garage, you may get a ticket and/or be towed.

If you are parking in the back lane during waste collection, make sure there’s at least 1 metre (3 ft.) of space left between any vehicle and the closest cart.

Yes, street sweeping will go ahead as scheduled on April 28 if there are no unexpected weather delays. Adjustments to minimize conflicts with polling station locations have been made along coordination with Elections Canada. 

Advance polling stations are open for four days, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m from April 18 to April 21. Street sweeping will not occur on April 18 (Good Friday) as it is a statutory holiday. 

Street sweeping works on a fixed date schedule approach like cart collection. When a community is scheduled, the public can expect The City to sweep on those specific dates and times. This provides more certainty and minimizes the inconvenience of moving vehicles to a reasonable duration.

Recently, The City adjusted how communities are scheduled each sweeping season. Every effort is made to rotate community schedules during the 10-week sweeping program. Over an average three-year period, we work to ensure that a community will be swept near the beginning, middle and end of the planned schedule. Example Below:

• Year 1 (Weeks 1 – 3)
• Year 2 (Weeks 4 – 6)
• Year 3 (Weeks 7 – 10)

This means that communities that were swept earlier in one year, will be swept later in the following year. Please note, schedule delays due to weather are rescheduled to the end of the program so there may be instances where this schedule approach does not apply due to severe weather.