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Road Services' Internship Program
Expand your career horizons and get real world experience in a paid internship!
King County Road Services Division offers full-time, paid summer internships for enrolled college and graduate students in a wide range of fields. Our internship program will give you the chance to work closely with diverse teams on meaningful projects and develop real-world skills.
The Road Services Division connects our region’s people to safe, reliable transportation by designing, building, operating, and maintaining bridges, roads, and drainage systems. Interns who join our teams have a unique opportunity to work collaboratively alongside engineers, program managers, planners, inspectors, environmental scientists, budget and finance analysts, and many others.
Our Division’s interns join a group of their peers and participate in cohort-based learning opportunities and project site visits. Interns are provided mentorship to gain skills firsthand and learn more about local government work.
The 2024 Summer Intern program has finished and 2025 internships will be posted early Spring 2025.
Visit active construction project sites with project teams
2022 intern cohort visits Coal Creek Bridge Replacement, a project which removed and replaced the old 64-year-old Coal Creek Bridge.
Get a behind-the-scenes tour of traffic signs and signals
2023 intern cohort tours the King County Roads Maintenance shop in Renton.
Descend underground to observe bridge operations
2023 intern cohort visits South Park Bridge, which is a bridge that opens over the Duwamish River.
Department of Local Services News Blog article
Learn more about intern experiences and takeaways
See examples of past summer internship opportunities
Engineering
- Assist with project management, design, and/or inspections.
- Assist with preparation, review and evaluation of engineering plans, specs, cost estimates, right of way plans and legal descriptions (may involve field visits) for capital projects.
- Assist senior engineers with coordinating, monitoring and controlling project scope, schedule, and budget.
- Assist supervisor in developing, modifying, and maintaining work order contracts, Architecture and Engineering contracts, and other contracts as needed.
- Participate in design review meetings.
- Collaborate with support services associated with the project which includes Materials Laboratory, Survey, Environmental, Traffic and involved private utilities.
- Support Engineer staff on various tasks as assigned.
- Assist with project management, structural design, and/or inspections
- Assist with preparation, review and evaluation of engineering plans, specifications, cost estimates, right of way plans and legal descriptions (may involve field visits) for capital projects
- Assist senior engineers with coordinating, monitoring and controlling project scope, schedule, and budget
- Assist supervisor in developing, modifying, and maintaining work order contracts, Architecture and Engineering contracts, and other contracts as needed
- Participate in design review meetings
- Collaborate with support services associated with the project which includes Materials Laboratory, Survey, Environmental, Traffic and involved private utilities
- Learn hydrologic/hydraulic modeling (HEC-RAS)
- Assist with project design and construction survey.
- Conduct field surveying work and construction staking.
- Learn land surveying principles and techniques.
- Learn use and operation of surveying equipment.
- Regular field work component—traversing difficult terrain (clearing/cutting brush, etc).
- Assist with survey base mapping using Civil 3D from points collected in the field.
- Assist with preparation of right of way plans and legal descriptions for capital projects.
- Participate in design review meetings.
- Collaborate with engineers and project support staff.
- Support Surveying staff on various tasks as assigned.
- Assist with project management, structural design, and/or inspections.
- Assist with preparation, review and evaluation of engineering plans, specifications, cost estimates, right of way plans and legal descriptions (may involve field visits) for capital projects.
- Assist senior engineers with coordinating, monitoring and controlling project scope, schedule, and budget.
- Assist supervisor in developing, modifying, and maintaining work order contracts, Architecture and Engineering contracts, and other contracts as needed.
- Participate in design review meetings.
- Collaborate with support services associated with Traffic projects.
- Support Engineer staff on various tasks as assigned.
Program Planning and Management
- Acquire baseline knowledge of Roads’ capital improvement program.
- Develop skills in preparing data visualizations that communicate project information, including using tools such as PowerBI and Microsoft Excel.
- Demonstrate understanding of performance management and measurement processes.
- Engage with diverse project teams and develop strong oral and written communication skills to effectively to convey key information.
- Demonstrate flexibility and multi-task on projects, while producing high-quality deliverables in a timely manner.
- Acquire baseline knowledge of design and construction contracts, road design and construction standards, construction contract documentation requirements and processes, project management processes and tools, road-funding sources, and reporting requirements.
- Understand how tools and technologies help agencies track data and monitor compliance.
- Develop skills in research, analysis, technical writing and documentation, task coordination, and teamwork.
- Support development of contract administration guidelines and SharePoint site resource for project managers and teams.
- Participate in the documentation of standards and processes for the Program and Project Support Services group.
- Collaborate with team members regularly to support and maintain communication hubs via SharePoint and MS Teams.
- Leverage existing technologies and tools to enhance data management and analysis.
- Create a Roads Performance Measures Reporting Catalog.
- Conduct qualitative research with performance management collaborators (data stewards, supervisors, etc.) to establish a central repository to document all actively used performance measures.
- Collaborate with subject matter experts to facilitate preparation of monthly performance reporting materials.
- Support development and maintenance of Power BI reports and dashboards.
- Serve on work group to update an existing grants portfolio dashboard.
- Engagement with Equity and Social Justice Action and Change Team.
- Co-create and report equity focused performance measures.
Construction Inspection
- Act as an assistant inspector on construction projects that includes bridges, retaining walls, large culverts (concrete and steel), drainage systems and facilities, earthwork, paving (concrete and asphalt), illumination, traffic signal systems, traffic guardrail and barrier, stream bank restoration and features, mitigation sites, landscaping and traffic control setups.
- Assist in construction inspection duties on Department of Local Services projects in accordance with the WSDOT Local Agency Guidelines (LAG) for Contracting Agencies, WSDOT Construction Manual, the WSDOT Standard Specifications and the Contract Documents for a variety of County Road Infrastructure projects.
- Assist in monitoring and documenting of specific construction activities on the project.
- Participate in design review meetings.
- Collaborate with support services associated with the project which includes Materials Laboratory, Survey, Environmental, Traffic and involved private Utilities.
- Support Inspection staff on various tasks as assigned.
Archaeology
- Conduct archaeological field investigations including use of shovel and auger probes.
- Utilize handheld GPS unit.
- Complete field documentation including State Archaeological Site Inventory Forms
- Write technical reports on the results of fieldwork.
- Collect samples in the field suitable for radiocarbon assay.
- Analyze precontact artifacts for reporting purposes (any specialization, i.e. lithics, fauna, shellfish, etc.)
- Prepare artifacts for permanent curation.
- Coordinate fieldwork with federally recognized Tribes.
- Mark for and request Utility Locates prior to fieldwork.
- Support on-going and emergent needs, including construction monitoring and inadvertent discoveries.
