The Highway Maintenance Worker maintains highways, municipal and rural roads, airport runways, and rights-of-way. Their duties include patching broken or eroded pavement, repairing guard rails, highway markers, and snow fences. The Highway Maintenance Worker may also mow or clear brush from roads or plow snow from roadway.
Tasks for the Highway Maintenance Worker
- The Highway Maintenance Worker flags motorists to warn them of obstacles or repair work ahead.
- The Highway Maintenance Worker sets out signs and cones around work areas to divert traffic.
- The Highway Maintenance Worker drive trucks or tractors with adjustable attachments to sweep debris from paved surfaces, mow grass and weeds, and remove snow and ice.
- The Highway Maintenance Worker dumps, spreads, and tamp asphalt, using pneumatic tampers, to repair joints and patch broken pavement.
- The Highway Maintenance Worker drives trucks to transport crews and equipment to work sites.
- The Highway Maintenance Worker inspects, cleans, and repairs drainage systems, bridges, tunnels, and other structures.
- The Highway Maintenance Worker hauls and spread sand, gravel and clay to fill washouts and repairs road shoulders.
- The Highway Maintenance Worker erects installs, or repairs guardrails, road shoulders, berms, highway markers, warning signals, and highway lighting, using hand tools and power tools.
- The Highway Maintenance Worker removes litter and debris from roadways, including debris from rock and mud slides.
- The Highway Maintenance Worker cleans and clears debris from culverts, catch basins, drop inlets, ditches, and other drain structures.
Knowledge needed for the Highway Maintenance Worker
The Highway Maintenance Worker needs knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions. The Highway Maintenance Worker needs knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits. The Highway Maintenance Worker needs knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance. The Highway Maintenance Worker needs knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads. The Highway Maintenance Worker needs knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs, assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction. The Highway Maintenance Worker needs knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
Abilities needed for the Highway Maintenance Worker
- The Highway Maintenance Worker needs the ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- The Highway Maintenance Worker needs the ability to coordinate two or more limbs for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- The Highway Maintenance Worker needs the ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- The Highway Maintenance Worker needs the ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- The Highway Maintenance Worker needs the ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulated, or assemble objects.
- The Highway Maintenance Worker needs the ability to see details at close range within a few feet of the observer.
- The Highway Maintenance Worker needs the ability to keep hand and arm steady while moving the arm or while holding the arm and hand in one position.
- The Highway Maintenance Worker to see details at a distance.
- The Highway Maintenance Worker needs the ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
- The Highway Maintenance Worker needs the ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- The Highway Maintenance Worker needs the ability to run, maneuver, navigating, or driving vehicles or mechanized equipment, such as forklifts, passenger vehicles, aircraft, or water craft.