National Public Works Week
Since 1960, National Public Works Week has shone a spotlight on the essential role public works plays in shaping strong, connected and sustainable communities across North America. Here in Richmond Hill, our public works team is at the heart of it all.
From the roads you travel every day to the parks you unwind in, these dedicated professionals work behind the scenes—and on the front lines—to keep our community running smoothly. Their expertise touches every corner of daily life: maintaining roads and sidewalks, delivering safe, high-quality drinking water, managing stormwater and wastewater systems, and keeping our fleet ready to respond.
They also help make Richmond Hill a greener, more beautiful place to live—caring for our urban forest, enhancing gardens and natural spaces, restoring ecosystems, maintaining parks and trails, and managing waste responsibly.
Rain or shine, season after season, Richmond Hill’s public works team is committed to building a community that’s safe, vibrant and sustainable—for today and for the future.
Spotlight
Read about the teams that make up Public Works and some of the services they provide.
| Parks Services & Infrastructure |
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| Roads |
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In winter, crews closely monitor weather forecasts and changing road conditions around the clock, responding with timely salting, snow clearing and removal operations to keep roads safe and passable. |
| Support Services |
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| Urban Forestry, Natural Environment & Horticulture |
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| Waste |
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Water & Wastewater |
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Our Parks Services & Infrastructure team cares for your favourite places to play and relax. They maintain 350+ ha of parkland, 170 parks, 70km of park pathways, 81 tennis courts, 88 basketball courts, 16 splash pads, 226 playgrounds, 44 soccer fields, 38 baseball diamonds, two skate parks, four pickleball courts, four ice skating rinks and the skate trail. In the winter, they’re also responsible for clearing ice & snow from nearly 750 km of sidewalks.
Our Roads team helps keep our community moving year-round. They inspect, maintain, and oversee the repaving of 586 km of roads and nearly 750 km of sidewalks. The team also conducts annual inspections of traffic signs and pavement markings to ensure visibility and reflectivity for safe travel, day and night.
Our Support Services team keeps the City’s 400+ vehicles/equipment on the road, in the field & running efficiently, so staff can provide essential services to our community. They inspect & maintain a fleet that includes, light duty trucks, road and sidewalk plows, windrow machines, front end loaders, lawn mowers, sports field liners, turf & asphalt rollers & more!
Our Urban Forestry, Natural Environment & Horticulture team helps to grow our tree canopy, maintains 70 km of recreational trails and makes our community look its best. The team cares for 73,000+ City trees, which includes planting, pruning, hazard tree removals and more. They also design, plant and maintain 1,600 garden beds & 800+ flower baskets/barrels keeping our community vibrant & beautiful for people & pollinators.
Our operations Waste team helps keep our 171 parks clean & beautiful. They collect waste from 630+ containers, pick up litter & clean up illegal dumping. The team also supports popular City events like Canada Day, Ribfest & Concerts in the Park by delivering and setting up equipment, tables and chairs & providing waste management services.
Our Water & Wastewater team maintains 630km of watermain, pipes and valves and 600km of sanitary sewer, that bring clean water into & wastewater out of homes and businesses. Our certified operators perform daily water quality tests and analysis five days a week to ensure our water is safe and meets all water quality standards. The team also maintains 560km of storm sewer, 17,000+ catch basins and 98 stormwater ponds helping to protect the community from flooding.