Salary and Outlook

According to the US Department of Labor, there are 45,000 people employed as paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operators in the United States. The median annual salary is $46,960. Entry level employees earn approximately $30,220 per year and senior employees earn approximately $77,820 per year.

Estimates do not include other potential benefits such as health insurance, overtime pay, or retirement benefits that may be offered by employers.

Job Duties

• Install dies, cutters, and extensions to screeds onto machines, using hand tools.
• Set up forms and lay out guidelines for curbs, according to written specifications, using string, spray paint, and concrete or water mixes.
• Control paving machines to push dump trucks and to maintain a constant flow of asphalt or other material into hoppers or screeds.
• Observe distribution of paving material to adjust machine settings or material flow, and indicate low spots for workers to add material.
• Coordinate truck dumping.
• Drive machines onto truck trailers, and drive trucks to transport machines and material to and from job sites.
• Inspect, clean, maintain, and repair equipment, using mechanics' hand tools, or report malfunctions to supervisors.
• Set up and tear down equipment.
• Operate machines to spread, smooth, level, or steel-reinforce stone, concrete, or asphalt on road beds.
• Light burners or start heating units of machines, and regulate screed temperatures and asphalt flow rates.
• Control traffic.
• Shovel blacktop.
• Operate tamping machines or manually roll surfaces to compact earth fills, foundation forms, and finished road materials, according to grade specifications.
• Operate oil distributors, loaders, chip spreaders, dump trucks, and snow plows.
• Place strips of material, such as cork, asphalt, or steel into joints, or place rolls of expansion-joint material on machines that automatically insert material.
• Drive and operate curbing machines to extrude concrete or asphalt curbing.
• Operate machines that clean or cut expansion joints in concrete or asphalt and that rout out cracks in pavement.
• Cut or break up pavement and drive guardrail posts, using machines equipped with interchangeable hammers.
• Start machine, engage clutch, and push and move levers to guide machine along forms or guidelines and to control the operation of machine attachments.
• Fill tanks, hoppers, or machines with paving materials.

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