Construction and Extraction · Holland code RC
Highway Maintenance Workers
Maintain highways, municipal and rural roads, airport runways, and rights-of-way. Duties include patching broken or eroded pavement and repairing guard rails, highway markers, and snow fences. May also mow or clear brush from along road, or plow snow from roadway.
Also called: Equipment Operator (EO), Highway Maintainer, Highway Maintenance Worker, Transportation Maintenance Specialist (TMS), Highway Maintenance Crew Worker, Highway Maintenance Technician, Maintenance Technician, Maintenance Worker.
O*NET 47-4051.00
At a glance
- US median annual pay
- $50,260
- Middle half earn $43,500 to $61,040. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
- Most common education
- High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED)
- 88% of workers surveyed by O*NET report this level.
- Preparation needed
- Job Zone 2 of 5
- Some preparation. Zone 1 is little or none; zone 5 is graduate-level.
What the work involves
The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.
- Set out signs and cones around work areas to divert traffic.
- Flag motorists to warn them of obstacles or repair work ahead.
- Perform preventative maintenance on vehicles and heavy equipment.
- Drive trucks to transport crews and equipment to work sites.
- Erect, install, or repair guardrails, road shoulders, berms, highway markers, warning signals, and highway lighting, using hand tools and power tools.
- Clean and clear debris from culverts, catch basins, drop inlets, ditches, and other drain structures.
- Drive heavy equipment and vehicles with adjustable attachments to sweep debris from paved surfaces, mow grass and weeds, remove snow and ice, and spread salt and sand.
- Haul and spread sand, gravel, and clay to fill washouts and repair road shoulders.
Skills and knowledge it leans on
Skills
- Monitoring3.1 / 5
- Active Listening3.0 / 5
- Speaking3.0 / 5
- Critical Thinking2.9 / 5
- Reading Comprehension2.8 / 5
- Active Learning2.4 / 5
Knowledge areas
- Public Safety and Security4.2 / 5
- English Language3.5 / 5
- Transportation3.3 / 5
- Building and Construction3.2 / 5
- Education and Training3.0 / 5
- Administration and Management3.0 / 5
Importance ratings on O*NET’s 1 to 5 scale. Higher means the occupation depends on it more.
Who tends to enjoy it
How strongly this occupation draws on each of the six Holland interest types, which is the same profile the career interests test compares you against.
- Realistic100
- Investigative12
- Artistic1
- Social13
- Enterprising8
- Conventional42
The same work abroad
Other countries classify jobs differently, so these are the closest matches through the international ISCO-08 standard, not exact equivalents.
European occupation titles (ESCO)
- road maintenance technician · DE Straßeninstandhaltungstechniker/Straßeninstandhaltungstechnikerin · FR opérateur entretien et surveillance du réseau routier/opératrice entretien et surveillance du réseau routier
- sign maker · DE Schilderhersteller/Schilderherstellerin · FR fabricant de signalétique/fabricante de signalétique
- road construction worker · DE Straßenbaumaschinenführer/Straßenbaumaschinenführerin · FR ouvrier en voiries/ouvrière en voiries
- road roller operator · DE Straßenwalzenfahrer/Straßenwalzenfahrerin · FR conducteur de compacteurs/conductrice de compacteurs
- snow-clearing worker · DE Schneepflugfahrer/Schneepflugfahrerin · FR conducteur d’engin de déneigement/conductrice d’engin de déneigement
- civil engineering worker · DE Tiefbauhelfer/Tiefbauhelferin · FR ouvrier génie civil/ouvrière génie civil
Closest UK occupation groups (SOC 2020)
- Street cleaners (9222)14,000 employed
- Building and civil engineering technicians (3114)20,100 employed
- Rail construction and maintenance operatives (8153)7,600 employed
Employment is the UK Annual Population Survey for April 2025 to March 2026, all workers in the group, which can be broader than this one occupation.
Pay across Europe, for the whole group
Median annual earnings of all employees in “Elementary occupations”. This is the broad ISCO group this occupation falls in, not the occupation itself, so treat it as context for the wage level, not as a salary for this job.
| Country | Median pay |
|---|---|
| Belgium | €29,579 |
| Sweden | €28,305 |
| Austria | €27,215 |
| Netherlands | €24,577 |
| Ireland | €24,331 |
| Germany | €22,430 |
| Italy | €22,101 |
| France | €21,664 |
| Spain | €17,502 |
| Portugal | €9,424 |
| Poland | €7,534 |
Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey, businesses with ten or more employees outside public administration, in euro and not adjusted for the cost of living. Reference years differ between sources: the US, Japan and Europe figures on this page come from different survey years, so compare them as rough levels, not to the euro or yen.
Exposure to AI
This occupation sits in the lower third of the 774 occupations scored, with an exposure score of -1.28. The scores are standardized across those occupations, so 0 is the average and a score of 1 is about one standard deviation above it.
Our note on reading it: the dataset links AI applications to the abilities that occupations require, so the score reflects overlap between the two. It is a comparison between occupations, not a forecast about jobs. It does not say whether exposure means tasks are replaced or workers get more done with the tools, and it says little about one employer or one role.
Source: Felten, E., Raj, M., & Seamans, R. (2021). Occupational, industry, and geographic exposure to artificial intelligence: A novel dataset and its potential uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12), 2195-2217. Matched to this page by 6-digit SOC code (47-4051).
Related careers
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