Key findings
Highway maintenance workers play a crucial role in ensuring the safety and functionality of our roadways.
Their tasks involve maintaining highways, municipal and rural roads, airport runways, and rights-of-way by fixing broken pavement, repairing guardrails, highway markers, and snow fences.
Additionally, they may be responsible for tasks such as cutting grass, removing brush, and snow plowing.
These workers utilize skills like active listening, speaking, monitoring, coordination, and complex problem solving to efficiently carry out their duties.
While some skills of this job could be automated in the future, the physical nature of the work and the need for human judgment make it unlikely to be fully transformed by Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI).
The unique automation wave driven by GenAI is not expected to significantly impact blue-collar workers like highway maintenance workers, as their tasks require physical labor and hands-on problem-solving abilities that AI currently cannot replicate.
Despite advancements in automation, the demand for skilled blue-collar workers is anticipated to remain strong, especially in industries that offer premium goods and services, ensuring a stable income share for these workers.
How could AI or automation replace or complement job activities?
Highway maintenance workers could potentially automate tasks like setting out signs and cones, flagging motorists, driving trucks, cleaning debris, and painting traffic lines using AI and automation tools.
For example, AI-powered drones could be used to place and remove snow fences to prevent snow accumulation on highways.
Job description
Maintaining highways, municipal and rural roads, airport runways, and rights-of-way involves fixing broken pavement, repairing guardrails, highway markers, and snow fences. The job may also include cutting grass or removing brush along roads, as well as snow plowing.
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