City of Calgary street sweeping starts Monday

Despite a decent dump of snow in Calgary Thursday, warm incoming temperatures have the city optimistic street sweeping can start Monday.

Residents living in the first scheduled communities should already see signs in their neighbourhood indicating their sweeping date.

However, depending on how the snow melts by April 20, neighbourhoods scheduled to be the first swept could be postponed.

Residential street sweeping runs Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Calgarians can also find their scheduled sweeping date by visiting calgary.ca/sweep, where they can use the address lookup tool. Residents are also encouraged s to sign up for e-mail and text reminders.

Vehicles need to be moved in order to effectively sweep, the city says, resulting in a parking ban.

Before a street sweeping parking ban goes in effect, crews will put up community signs with ‘No Parking’ symbols a few days earlier at specific locations around the community. These signs are verified by Calgary Parking, who help enforce the ban.

Any vehicle that has not been removed from the street during the ban is subject to a ticket. Calgary Parking uses camera vehicles for enforcement, and tickets will arrive through the mail.

If vehicles are towed to a nearby space the vehicle owner will be issued a street sweeping ticket. If they are towed to the Municipal Impound Lot the vehicle owner pays the ticket, tow, and impound fee.

A ticket paid within 10 days will be $80; paid before 30 days will be $90; and after 30 days will be $120.

Residential street sweeping will take place through to June, clearing more than 17,000 lane kilometres of roadway. Major roads are typically swept overnight.

Calgary’s spring clean-up program comes at a cost of approximately $7 million.