Remove litter and debris from roadways, including debris from rock and mud slides.

“Remove litter and debris from roadways, including debris from rock and mud slides.” is a core task performed by Highway Maintenance Workers. Among the occupation's 19 rated tasks, workers place it 10th by importance (#10 most important). About 80% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Dispose of waste or debris. in Performing General Physical Activities

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E0. No direct exposure — current language models give little or no time savings on this task.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.00. Automation potential label: T0.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Set out signs and cones around work areas to divert traffic. · importance 4.5
• Flag motorists to warn them of obstacles or repair work ahead. · importance 4.4
• Perform preventative maintenance on vehicles and heavy equipment. · importance 4.3
• Drive trucks to transport crews and equipment to work sites. · importance 4.3
• Erect, install, or repair guardrails, road shoulders, berms, highway markers, warning signals, and highway lighting, using hand tools and power tools. · importance 4.2
• Clean and clear debris from culverts, catch basins, drop inlets, ditches, and other drain structures. · importance 4.2
• Drive heavy equipment and vehicles with adjustable attachments to sweep debris from paved surfaces, mow grass and weeds, remove snow and ice, and spread salt and sand. · importance 4.1
• Haul and spread sand, gravel, and clay to fill washouts and repair road shoulders. · importance 4.1
• Inspect, clean, and repair drainage systems, bridges, tunnels, and other structures. · importance 4.0
• Dump, spread, and tamp asphalt, using pneumatic tampers, to repair joints and patch broken pavement. · importance 4.0
• Apply poisons along roadsides and in animal burrows to eliminate unwanted roadside vegetation and rodents. · importance 3.8
• Measure and mark locations for installation of markers, using tape, string, or chalk. · importance 3.7
• Paint traffic control lines and place pavement traffic messages, by hand or using machines. · importance 3.6
• Perform roadside landscaping work, such as clearing weeds and brush, and planting and trimming trees. · importance 3.6

See all tasks on the Highway Maintenance Workers page.

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-task-4879,
  title  = {Remove litter and debris from roadways, including debris from rock and mud slides.},
  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/tasks/task-4879}
}