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Residents and property owners are responsible for ensuring that sidewalks on and beside their properties are maintained all winter, to keep walkways safe and accessible for everyone.
The Community Sandbox Program provides free, dry sand at designated locations for use on icy sidewalks and walkways.
For the 2024-25 season, there will be 100 public sandbox locations. This change allows more resources to be dedicated to improving Snow and Ice Control service levels for Active Pathways, including bus stops and public amenities.
Community sandboxes are evenly distributed across the City. Large, centralized bins also provide better availability of sand.
Bring your own container when you visit your local community sandbox, large sand bin location or roadway maintenance yard. Timelines for refilling community sandboxes fall under Priority 4 service level. Large sand bins are refilled more frequently.
| Facility Name | Address and Location | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Ambleside Eco Station | 14710 Ellerslie Road SW Inside the Ambleside Eco Station right near the main gate ticket booth. Winter sand is stored at the same location as the summer wood chips. |
View operational hours |
| Coronation Eco Station | 11440 143 Street NW North side of the main Eco Station building. |
View operational hours |
| Kennedale Eco Station | 5355 127 Avenue NW East side of yard. Must access through public access to Eco Station. |
View operational hours |
| Callingwood Arena Recycling Depot | 17740 69 Avenue NW Arena parking lot. |
24/7 access |
| The Meadows Community Recreation Centre | 2704 17 Street NW Northeast corner of north parking lot. |
24/7 access |
| Castle Downs Arena Recycling Depot | 11930 153 Avenue NW Parking lot at the playground and skatepark located west of Castledowns Arena. |
24/7 access |
| Clareview Recreation Centre | 3804 139 Avenue NW Northwest corner of parking lot just off 139 Avenue. |
24/7 access |
| Kinsmen Sports Centre | 9100 Walterdale Hill At the end of the parking row along the northwest side of the facility nearby to the playground. |
24/7 access |
| Booster Juice Recreation Centre in Terwillegar | 2051 Leger Road NW Southeast corner of overflow parking lot closest to 23 Avenue. |
24/7 access |
| Borden Park | 7507 Borden Park Road NW Northeast corner of parking lot. |
24/7 access |
| Poplar Park | 8403 167 Avenue NW Southeast corner of parking lot. |
24/7 access |
Additional sandboxes are located outside the fences at Roadway Maintenance Yards. Please do not drive into the yards.
| Central | 10517 95 Street |
| Northeast | 13003 56 Street |
| Northwest | 14320 114 Avenue |
| Southeast | 5409 59 Avenue |
| Southwest | 6609 Gateway Boulevard |
Find community sandboxes near you.
In October 2023, the City decided to reduce the number of public sandboxes to 100 locations for the 2024-2025 winter season. This decision was informed by public engagement results in 2023, which can be found in the What We Heard Report and the Public Opinion Research Summary.
After the decision was made in October 2023, community leagues and facilities with sandboxes were informed of the planned changes for the 2024-25 winter season and what to expect prior to the implementation of the changes.
Stakeholders, such as community leagues, were emailed an information update and an invitation to register for an information session, which took place between February 28 and March 11.
At this time, there are no plans for public engagement on the program changes. City staff will be evaluating the program changes and plan to gather feedback from sandbox users. If there are future program changes that may require public engagement, this opportunity will be promoted through the community sandboxes web page and on Engaged Edmonton, as well as being shared through a communications campaign for the general public and stakeholders.
Only sandboxes and bins available for the public and residents to use are shown on the map. Other sandboxes are for internal use only by Snow and Ice crews, City contractors and facility staff. These will be smaller in size, yellow and be locked. Any sandboxes available for public and residents to use will not have a lock on them and will be the green wooden boxes. They will also have City-branded labeling that mentions to contact 311 if empty.
The smaller community sandboxes are spaced across Edmonton using a 1km radius to help ensure even spacing. While the 1km is used to help set approximate locations, this does not mean that boxes will be within 1km for all residents. The intent was to have boxes 1km from each neighbourhood boundary, where possible. This spacing is intended to provide vehicle access within a 10-minute drive distance or less.
Based on public and stakeholder engagement feedback as well as operational needs, staff developed site selection criteria to ensure the new sandbox distribution would be equitable and accessible, as well as take into account geography and population demographics. Sandboxes must also be located on public property which is accessible and can be serviced using work vehicles. All existing and new sandbox locations were evaluated according to the following factors:
At this time, the City will only consider increasing the number of sandboxes in response to increased growth in residential areas. For the time being, the number of public-facing sandboxes will remain at 100 boxes, plus large sand bin sites.
During public engagement, our survey showed that 87% of identified sandbox users use a personal vehicle to get sand. This included seniors and persons with limited mobility. Sand is quite heavy and many people would likely find it difficult to carry a pail of sand for more than a couple of minutes. 1 km is equivalent to a 3-5 min drive, or a 15-30 min walk, depending on where the sandbox is located relative to roads and walkways. In that same survey, 93% of respondents were willing to travel up to 10 minutes in a vehicle to get sand.
Based on feedback, the spacing of sandboxes is likely sufficient for most residents’ needs, especially if this helps guarantee that the nearest sandbox is likely to have sand more often. The biggest complaint heard during engagement was that the nearest sandbox was often empty.
Ultimately, the decisions were affected by geography and where the league buildings are situated relative to major roadways and residential neighbourhoods. The goal is to have a more even distribution of boxes across residential areas, so some of the locations where a sandbox could be placed include league buildings, parks, schools, intersections, or recreation and leisure centres.
Sand bins are large and can easily and quickly be refilled by sand delivery trucks. Bins hold a large quantity of sand and are refilled faster by large trucks. EcoStation locations available during operating hours. Other locations are available 24/7. Sand boxes are smaller than bins and located in neighbourhoods.
Because they’re large, they can be easily and quickly refilled by sand delivery trucks. Because of the ability to quickly refill them and how much sand they hold, they will provide a more reliable source of sand for residents.
These sandboxes and sand bins are intended for individual, residential use, including community leagues. We are aware that contractors have previously used sand from sandboxes. Unfortunately, there’s no way to enforce or prevent this from happening, but we’re hoping that having fewer small sandboxes will enable staff to monitor these more closely. Having large sand bins in areas that are under regular observation and have a lot of traffic, such as at recreation centres, will hopefully help reduce the misuse of sand by contractors.
Businesses are encouraged to obtain their own sandbox and their own supply of sand to keep their on-site walkways safe. They can either choose to maintain this themselves or use a contracted service.
The Community Sandbox Program grew by more than 400 percent from 2018 to 2023 resulting in Edmonton having the largest number of community sandboxes compared to all other Canadian municipalities. When sidewalks are icy, there is a lot of public demand for sand, resulting in smaller boxes emptying faster than City crews can refill.
Following recommendations from the 2021 Snow and Ice Control Audit Report, public engagement with residents and stakeholders was conducted in 2023 and is summarized in the What We Heard Report and the Public Opinion Research Summary. These helped inform changes to this program.
In October 2023, the City decided to reduce the number of public sandboxes to 100 locations for the 2024-2025 winter season. Sandboxes were redistributed throughout the city to ensure equitable access from residential areas. Additional large bin locations were added to provide more reliable access to sand.
Locations of sandboxes were selected based on several factors and site criteria, including coverage of residential areas, public accessibility, access requirements for maintenance crews, vehicular and foot traffic considerations, safety and visibility, proximity to public locations, and other site-specific details. Some sandboxes may be located at or near a community league.
All community leagues were given the option to request their own sandbox to maintain and keep filled, independent from the City. League-maintained boxes are blue wooden boxes and are labelled to indicate that the league is responsible for refilling them. They are not shown on the public Community Sandbox map.
| Telephone | In Edmonton: 311 Outside Edmonton: 780-442-5311 |
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| TTY | 780-944-5555 |
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