Will AI replace Bridge and Lock Tenders?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
15/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 28% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 30% of the work
What the job involves
Operate and tend bridges, canal locks, and lighthouses to permit marine passage on inland waterways, near shores, and at danger points in waterway passages. May supervise such operations. Includes drawbridge operators, lock operators, and slip bridge operators.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(5)
- Record names, types, and destinations of vessels passing through bridge openings or locks, and numbers of trains or vehicles crossing bridges.
- Log data, such as water levels and weather conditions.
- Prepare accident reports.
- Write and submit maintenance work requisitions.
- Inspect canal and bridge equipment, and areas, such as roadbeds, for damage or defects, reporting problems to supervisors as necessary.
Out of reach(13)
- Control machinery to open and close canal locks and dams, railroad or highway drawbridges, or horizontally or vertically adjustable bridges.
- Direct movements of vessels in locks or bridge areas, using signals, telecommunication equipment, or loudspeakers.
- Move levers to activate traffic signals, navigation lights, and alarms.
- Observe position and progress of vessels to ensure best use of lock spaces or bridge opening spaces.
- Observe approaching vessels to determine size and speed, and listen for whistle signals indicating desire to pass.
and 8 more
Also called
Bridge Operator · Lock Operator · Bridge Tender · Dam Operator · Drawbridge Operator · Bridge Leverman · Bridge Opener · Bridgeman
Related jobs
What these numbers mean
The score is the share of this job’s work, weighted by how important and frequent each task is, that AI could do in half the time: tasks an AI model could do alone count in full, tasks that need software built on AI count half.
“AI already used” is the share of the work in tasks where people are recorded using AI today. “As AI tools mature” counts every task AI could halve, with or without extra software.
The percentile compares the score with every job’s, weighted by how many people in the US do each one. Exposure means AI could change how the work is done, not that the job goes away. These are estimates for the typical job, not predictions.
Sources
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs (task labels), Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), OpenAI and University of Pennsylvania
- Anthropic Economic Index: labor market impacts (task penetration), Anthropic
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (national and metropolitan areas), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics