Undergraduate (b.S. Degree) civil engineers provide the majorityof the professionals entering highway maintenance engineering. The continued decline in planning, design, and construction as functional activities in state departments of transportation and the proportional growth in maintenance an operations activity suggest that it is time to examine the degree to which undergraduate civil engineering education is preparing young people for highway maintenance engineering careers. A survey of the 20 largest education programs indicates little overall educational strength suitable for highway maintenance careers. The accreditation board for engineering and technology criteria were found to be both a hindrance--emphasizing traditional science, the planning-design-construction process, and general education--and a help in providing a mechanism by which trb and aashto can become active in instituting change. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1276, Maintenance management 1990: proceedings of a workshop, jackson, mississippi, july 25-27, 1990.
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