Expanding the Transportation Workforce: Roadway Maintenance Workers

Project Summary

Most local transportation agencies across Minnesota find themselves in a similar place: struggling to hire staff, and particularly roadway maintenance workers. Very few, if any, people are applying for open positions. And if an agency is lucky enough to hire a new maintenance worker to join their team, there is significant investment needed to get that person trained for the job. Building on the successful work Minnesota LTAP completed with the Expanding the Transportation Workforce: Civil Engineering Technician contract, the goal of this project is to help local transportation agencies both recruit and retain new roadway maintenance workers. Through both an awareness-building campaign and the development of a training course roadmap (a checklist outlining suggested training courses new hires should complete), our aim is to expand the number of people applying for roadway maintenance jobs within local agency transportation departments. It should be noted that Minnesota LTAP and MnDOT's State Aid teams are working together on a separate effort to address the need to develop a CDL training program. Although CDL resources will be included the training course roadmap, developing a CDL training program will not be the focus of this project. Once more is known about the work LTAP and State Aid currently have underway, the training course roadmap can be updated.