Street Sweeping

As soon as weather permits, generally in March, the Streets Division begins the annual Spring Cleanup. This program is designed to clean up all the debris that accumulates on our streets during the winter.

The goal for the spring cleanup is to sweep every street twice - weather permitting - prior to the start of the spring rains.  Spring cleanup can last up to six weeks.

As part of this program we conduct a night sweeping operations. This has been regular part of the Streets Division operations for decades. A deployment of street sweepers works from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday.

The extra hours means we can prevent more sand and grit from entering our stormwater system. We do it during the overnight hours instead of the early evening because it keeps the sweepers out of regular evening rush hours. Sweepers are very slow, and would be a major disrupter to traffic.  And sweeping at night allows them to sweep areas that would otherwise see a high volume of cars, like along the boulevard on S. Midvale.

A regular daytime sweeping operation of Monday to Friday 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. also runs during the spring clean up time.

In 2024, this process will begin in the evening on Sunday, March 3.

Clean Streets/Clean Lakes (CSCL) is a posted parking restriction that prohibits parking once a week during a 4-hour window.  

The parking restriction allows street sweepers access to the curb so they can clean it during the times when parking is not allowed.  

This particular program has been in place since 1995.

CSCL sweeping begins as soon as we can and it ends in early December when sweeping operations traditionally stop due to weather and the annual maintenance period. 

Why didn't the sweeper arrive during the posted time?

There are multiple reasons why this could have happened.

For example, if a sweeper breaks down, we may not be able sweep the street during its posted time.  

The most common time of year when we may not be able to fulfill our sweeping commitment is during the fall leaf collection period. 

During fall leaf collection, which is October through November, sweepers are needed to follow behind the leaf collection crews to sweep up the debris created by the pickup process.  

We have nine sweepers in our entire citywide fleet.

When leaf collection is at its busiest, we can have double (or more) that many leaf collection crews out citywide.  

Sweepers move very slow.  Their top speed is around 5 miles-per-hour when collecting debris.  And they hold very little debris, especially if you compare it to the trucks we use to pick up leaves. 

We do our best to try to sweep both the weekly CSCL areas, and then also go to other areas of the city and clean up after leaf crews, but it is very difficult to say the least. 

We know that keeping leaf debris out of the street is very important for our lakes and waterways.  So, sometimes we need to move sweepers from the CSCL areas to trail the leaf collection crews to keep up with the leaf debris.

Read more about why it's important to keep our streets leaf free from the Madison Area Municipal Stormwater Partnership's Ripple Effects website.

Depending on weather conditions and mechanical breakdowns, the Streets Division aims to sweep each Madison street about once a month.

There is not a fixed schedule when sweepers will be in areas that do not have a posted parking restriction.  Due to CSCL requirements, breakdowns, staff availability, and other issues it is hard to predict when precisely we will be in certain neighborhoods for sweeping.

Keep in mind that sweepers cannot get to the curb when there are obstructions like parked cars, trailers, and even refuse & recycling carts.  

Street sweepers are very slow vehicles, and with so many lane miles to sweep, crews cannot always loop back to sweep from areas that were blocked by obstructions.

Whenever leaf collection begins, our street sweepers are assigned to follow our leaf collection crews.

Street sweepers will collect the pieces  of yard waste and leaves left in the roadway after curbside collection.

There will always be a gap between when the leaves picked up and when the street is swept.  We have more leaf collection crews that sweepers and pickup crews move faster than the sweepers. 

We want the sweepers to be on a street within two days of leaf collection - if the weather allows. 

Read more about why it's important to keep our streets leaf free from the Madison Area Municipal Stormwater Partnership's Ripple Effects website.

Street sweepers need water to work effectively.  They are not used when temperatures drop below freezing to avoid damage. Plus, street sweepers are very complex pieces of equipment that require a lot of maintenance throughout the year.

During the winter when we can't use the machines, the sweepers are taken out of service and sent for a maintenance checkup by the manufacturer.

Once this complete annual checkup is complete, which is usually in the spring, the sweepers are brought back ready for another year protecting our lakes.

Winter Sweeping?

If the weather cooperates, and the equipment is available, crews will perform street sweeping in winter. We need to above freezing temperatures and curb lines free of snow.

Some streets are regularly clogged with parked cars, making street sweeping along the curb difficult. 

In order to get access to these areas, the Streets Division can conduct a post and tow sweeping operation.

These select streets will be marked with temporary no parking signs.  Violators of these no parking signs will be ticketed and towed. Then the street will be swept.

Bike paths, which are also called shared-use paths, are swept by the Streets Division.

Shared-use paths do not have the same road base as a typical residential street. When the ground is soft due to the spring thaw, running the heavy sweeper on the paths could damage the pavement.

Beginning in 2019/2020, the Streets Division began using a light vehicle called a toolcat that has a small sweeper attachment. This vehicle is light enough to be used on the paths earlier in the season and can be used to collect the sand and grit from the winter. These light vehicles hold very little debris and are not appropriate for much else than picking up some of the sand while the ground is still not quite ready for heavier equipment.

Regular shared-use path sweeping begins when the weather is warm enough so the ground under the paths can withstand the weight of a more traditional sweeper.

Shared-use paths are swept multiple times during the course of the year.

In 2023, 6,633.46 tons of debris was swept from the roads and hauled to the Dane County Landfill.

In the fall, sweepers collect mostly leaves and we haul it to a compost site. In 2023, the sweepers collected at least 583 loads of leaves from the street.