Operate heavy-duty construction or installation equipment.

Operate heavy-duty construction or installation equipment. is a detailed work activity in O*NET — a concrete unit of work shared across 7 occupations and seen in 16 occupation-specific tasks. It rolls up into the broader work activity Operate construction or excavation equipment. in Controlling Machines and Processes .

Detailed work activities are the most granular shared layer in O*NET's work-activity hierarchy (Generalized → Intermediate → Detailed → occupation-specific task). The figures below describe how this activity shows up across the economy and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the work will be automated.

AI exposure

Of the 15 tasks under this activity that the OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rated, 0 (0%) are flagged as directly exposed to language models (E1) or exposed via model-powered tools (E2).

Exposure estimates overlap with model capabilities — whether a model could speed the task up — not whether the work will be done by software. Observed AI use is augmentation and assistance today, not jobs replaced.

Member tasks

Occupation-specific tasks O*NET maps to this detailed work activity, most important first.

• Move levers and turn valves to activate power hammers, or to raise and lower drophammers that drive piles to required depths. · Pile Driver Operators · importance 4.6 · no direct exposure
• Drive pilings to provide support for buildings or other structures, using heavy equipment with a pile driver head. · Pile Driver Operators · importance 4.5 · no direct exposure
• Operate single- or multiple-head spike driving machines to drive spikes into ties and secure rails. · Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators · importance 4.1 · no direct exposure
• Operate track wrenches to tighten or loosen bolts at joints that hold ends of rails together. · Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators · importance 4.0 · no direct exposure
• String and attach wire-guidelines machine to rails so that tracks or rails can be aligned or leveled. · Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators · importance 4.0 · no direct exposure
• Adjust controls of machines that spread, shape, raise, level, or align track, according to specifications. · Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators · importance 3.8 · no direct exposure
• Adjust handwheels and depress pedals to control attachments, such as blades, buckets, scrapers, or swing booms. · Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators · importance 3.8 · no direct exposure
• Engage mechanisms that lay tracks or rails to specified gauges. · Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators · importance 3.8 · no direct exposure
• Drive vehicles that automatically move and lay tracks or rails over sections of track to be constructed, repaired, or maintained. · Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators · importance 3.8 · no direct exposure
• Operate heavy equipment, such as bulldozers and front-end loaders. · Biomass Plant Technicians · importance 3.6 · no direct exposure
• Start machines to feed revolving cables or rods into openings, stopping machines and changing knives to conform to pipe sizes. · Septic Tank Servicers and Sewer Pipe Cleaners · importance 3.5 · no direct exposure
• Operate single- or multiple-head spike pullers to pull old spikes from ties. · Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators · importance 3.5 · no direct exposure
• Turn wheels of machines, using lever controls, to adjust guidelines for track alignments or grades, following specifications. · Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators · importance 3.5 · no direct exposure
• Push controls to close grasping devices on track or rail sections so that they can be raised or moved. · Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators · importance 3.5 · no direct exposure
• Cut or break up pavement and drive guardrail posts, using machines equipped with interchangeable hammers. · Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators · importance 3.4 · no direct exposure
• Operate heavy equipment, such as backhoes. · 47-3013.00

Occupations that perform this

• Pile Driver Operators
• Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators
• Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators
• Biomass Plant Technicians
• Septic Tank Servicers and Sewer Pipe Cleaners
• Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators
• 47-3013.00

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-operate-heavy-duty-construction-or-installation-equipment,
  title  = {Operate heavy-duty construction or installation equipment.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/detailed-activities/operate-heavy-duty-construction-or-installation-equipment}
}