A Highway Engineer is a qualified specialist who oversees the planning, budgeting, and implementation of a project, often working as part of a larger, multidisciplinary team across town planning, architecture, environmental health, and transport planning.

What does a Highways Engineer do?

A Highway Engineer is responsible for the overall planning and implementation of engineering projects such as roads, bridges, and highways. They test the feasibility of designs from a technical and planning perspective, as well as estimate the costs and resources associated with the project. From there, they would also be responsible for overseeing the implementation, similar to a project manager, including liaising with other departments, councils, members of the public, and construction personnel.

Benefits of working in Highway Engineering

“Highways Engineering is one of the most secure and flexible career paths one can take. The industry is well-known for being top-heavy, where a noticeable skills shortage is tackled by the constant encouragement – by Local Authorities, consultancies, contractors, and central government organisations (to name a few) – for new talent to join.

It’s often forgotten that our transport systems are the foundations of all development. In a climate where we’re looking to ‘Build, Build, Build’ in response to a housing shortage and where almost every corner of the country is undergoing some form of regeneration, the transport infrastructure needs to be adept at assisting the delivery of this development alongside sustaining it for years to come.

Highways engineers are a key pillar in this process. Getting involved from initial feasibility through to ensuring the working is completed to a quality-controlled standard.

From this, no two days are the same. Highways Engineering allows one to develop a catalog of soft and technical skills. Some days you will find yourself desk-bound, solving technical engineering problems, and other days you will find yourself liaising with high-profile stakeholders (politicians, directors) or having a chin-wag with those on-site.

The job is diverse in its nature and by holding key engineering principles, it exposes you to a range of particular niches that provide you the option of specialising in; development, traffic, parking, structures, civils, and drainage. Or you could stay a generalist. The World is your Oyster (Partnership) as a Highways Engineer.”