Transportation Engineers: Salary, Job Description, How To Become One, and Quiz

Job description

Transportation Engineers develop plans for surface transportation projects, according to established engineering standards and state or federal construction policy. Prepare designs, specifications, or estimates for transportation facilities. Plan modifications of existing streets, highways, or freeways to improve traffic flow.

• Check construction plans, design calculations, or cost estimations to ensure completeness, accuracy, or conformity to engineering standards or practices.
• Design or prepare plans for new transportation systems or parts of systems, such as airports, commuter trains, highways, streets, bridges, drainage structures, or roadway lighting.
• Confer with contractors, utility companies, or government agencies to discuss plans, specifications, or work schedules.
• Design or engineer drainage, erosion, or sedimentation control systems for transportation projects.

Salary

Transportation Engineers with little to no experience tend to make between $54780 and $67430 while the more experienced ones can earn over $112850 per year.

One of the easiest ways to increase your salary as a Transportation Engineer is to move to a higher paying state like AK. Right now, the highest paying states for Transportation Engineers are AK, CA, NJ, TX and NY.

However, a higher pay at AK doesn’t guarantee that you will make more because the living expenses at AK might be twice as high than where you are currently at now.

Three other factors that can increase your salary as a Transportation Engineer is the degree you hold, the industry you work in, and lastly the company you work for.

Requirements

We asked other Transportation Engineers what degree they had when they got the job and most of them said they had a Bachelor’s Degree followed by a Master’s Degree.

Other than that, we also asked them what did they major in and here are the most popular majors that came up.

Pros and Cons

Here are some of the pros and cons of being a Transportation Engineer.

What is the job like

70% of Transportation Engineers said they were satisfied with their job and 60% said they feel like their job is making other people’s lives better.

Is this right for me

You can read more about these career personality types here.

People who are suitable for this job tends to like work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They like working with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery..

They also like working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. They like searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.

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