Street Sweeping

The street sweeping program removes dirt and debris from City streets to provide a healthy, safe, and attractive environment for residents and visitors. Regular removal of leaves and debris is necessary to prevent stormwater drains from clogging, that can result in street flooding. Street sweeping also protects water quality and minimizes the burden on the sewer system from surface debris. Two sweepers work year round to sweep miles of street, curb, and gutter—preventing tons of debris from entering storm drains.

Sweeping Zones

Primary arterial streets are scheduled for weekly sweeping, and the remaining streets are divided into seven zones and swept on a rotating basis three to four times per year, in numerical order as time allows. Inclement weather, utility and road work may alter the sweeping schedule. Streets swept on a weekly basis include:

• Tumwater Boulevard from Littlerock Road to Capitol Boulevard 
• Capitol Boulevard
• 2nd Avenue 
• Littlerock Road
• Trosper Road from Capitol Boulevard to Littlerock Road
• North Street
• Custer Way
• Cleveland Avenue/Yelm Highway
• Henderson Boulevard - Yelm Highway to the Deschutes River (Pioneer Park)

What You Can Do to Help

Residents and business owners can help increase the effectiveness of the street sweeping program by keeping leaves, grass cuttings, trash containers, and vehicles out of the street on a sweeping day. To ensure a clean sweep, please be sure to:

• Trim shrub(s) and or tree(s) to back of curb.
• Keep tree branches pruned back and up so that they don't scrape the sweeper.
• Keep leaves and grass clippings out of the street and gutter.
• Move trash cans, waste containers, and other large items away from the street and gutter.
• Move portable basketball hoops the away from the street and gutter.
• Move parked cars and avoid parking boats, RVs and trailers along the street.

Street sweepers are large vehicles. When the sweeper maneuvers away from the curb to avoid a parked vehicle, it can take two car lengths before the street sweeper can reach the curb again. If several cars are parked along a block, the street sweeper may not be able to sweep the entire block.

Contact Us

Contact Transportation & Transportation Operations at (360) 754-4150 or request sweeping service on a Tumwater street through our Report a Problem online form.