diff --git a/durabletask-client/src/main/java/io/dapr/durabletask/DurableTaskGrpcWorker.java b/durabletask-client/src/main/java/io/dapr/durabletask/DurableTaskGrpcWorker.java
index 1e08d0804..73a09dd24 100644
--- a/durabletask-client/src/main/java/io/dapr/durabletask/DurableTaskGrpcWorker.java
+++ b/durabletask-client/src/main/java/io/dapr/durabletask/DurableTaskGrpcWorker.java
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 
 package io.dapr.durabletask;
 
+import com.google.protobuf.Empty;
 import io.dapr.durabletask.implementation.protobuf.OrchestratorService;
 import io.dapr.durabletask.implementation.protobuf.TaskHubSidecarServiceGrpc;
 import io.dapr.durabletask.orchestration.TaskOrchestrationFactories;
@@ -35,6 +36,7 @@
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
 import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
+import java.util.concurrent.ScheduledExecutorService;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 import java.util.logging.Level;
 import java.util.logging.Logger;
@@ -48,6 +50,7 @@ public final class DurableTaskGrpcWorker implements AutoCloseable {
   private static final int DEFAULT_PORT = 4001;
   private static final Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(DurableTaskGrpcWorker.class.getPackage().getName());
   private static final Duration DEFAULT_MAXIMUM_TIMER_INTERVAL = Duration.ofDays(3);
+  private static final long KEEPALIVE_INTERVAL_SECONDS = 30;
 
   private final TaskOrchestrationFactories orchestrationFactories;
 
@@ -63,6 +66,7 @@ public final class DurableTaskGrpcWorker implements AutoCloseable {
   private final TaskHubSidecarServiceGrpc.TaskHubSidecarServiceBlockingStub sidecarClient;
   private final boolean isExecutorServiceManaged;
   private volatile boolean isNormalShutdown = false;
+  private ScheduledExecutorService keepaliveScheduler;
   private Thread workerThread;
 
   DurableTaskGrpcWorker(DurableTaskGrpcWorkerBuilder builder) {
@@ -136,6 +140,7 @@ public void close() {
       this.workerThread.interrupt();
     }
     this.isNormalShutdown = true;
+    this.stopKeepaliveLoop();
     this.shutDownWorkerPool();
     this.closeSideCarChannel();
   }
@@ -175,33 +180,39 @@ public void startAndBlock() {
         OrchestratorService.GetWorkItemsRequest getWorkItemsRequest = OrchestratorService.GetWorkItemsRequest
             .newBuilder().build();
         Iterator<OrchestratorService.WorkItem> workItemStream = this.sidecarClient.getWorkItems(getWorkItemsRequest);
-        while (workItemStream.hasNext()) {
-          OrchestratorService.WorkItem workItem = workItemStream.next();
-          OrchestratorService.WorkItem.RequestCase requestType = workItem.getRequestCase();
-
-          if (requestType == OrchestratorService.WorkItem.RequestCase.ORCHESTRATORREQUEST) {
-            OrchestratorService.OrchestratorRequest orchestratorRequest = workItem.getOrchestratorRequest();
-            logger.log(Level.FINEST,
-                String.format("Processing orchestrator request for instance: {0}",
-                    orchestratorRequest.getInstanceId()));
-
-            this.workerPool.submit(new OrchestratorRunner(workItem, taskOrchestrationExecutor, sidecarClient, tracer));
-          } else if (requestType == OrchestratorService.WorkItem.RequestCase.ACTIVITYREQUEST) {
-            OrchestratorService.ActivityRequest activityRequest = workItem.getActivityRequest();
-
-            logger.log(Level.INFO,
-                String.format("Processing activity request: %s for instance: %s, gRPC thread context: %s",
-                    activityRequest.getName(),
-                    activityRequest.getOrchestrationInstance().getInstanceId(),
-                    Context.current()));
-
-            this.workerPool.submit(new ActivityRunner(workItem, taskActivityExecutor, sidecarClient, tracer));
-
-          } else {
-            logger.log(Level.WARNING,
-                "Received and dropped an unknown '{0}' work-item from the sidecar.",
-                requestType);
+        startKeepaliveLoop();
+        try {
+          while (workItemStream.hasNext()) {
+            OrchestratorService.WorkItem workItem = workItemStream.next();
+            OrchestratorService.WorkItem.RequestCase requestType = workItem.getRequestCase();
+
+            if (requestType == OrchestratorService.WorkItem.RequestCase.ORCHESTRATORREQUEST) {
+              OrchestratorService.OrchestratorRequest orchestratorRequest = workItem.getOrchestratorRequest();
+              logger.log(Level.FINEST,
+                  String.format("Processing orchestrator request for instance: {0}",
+                      orchestratorRequest.getInstanceId()));
+
+              this.workerPool.submit(
+                  new OrchestratorRunner(workItem, taskOrchestrationExecutor, sidecarClient, tracer));
+            } else if (requestType == OrchestratorService.WorkItem.RequestCase.ACTIVITYREQUEST) {
+              OrchestratorService.ActivityRequest activityRequest = workItem.getActivityRequest();
+
+              logger.log(Level.INFO,
+                  String.format("Processing activity request: %s for instance: %s, gRPC thread context: %s",
+                      activityRequest.getName(),
+                      activityRequest.getOrchestrationInstance().getInstanceId(),
+                      Context.current()));
+
+              this.workerPool.submit(new ActivityRunner(workItem, taskActivityExecutor, sidecarClient, tracer));
+
+            } else {
+              logger.log(Level.WARNING,
+                  "Received and dropped an unknown '{0}' work-item from the sidecar.",
+                  requestType);
+            }
           }
+        } finally {
+          stopKeepaliveLoop();
         }
       } catch (StatusRuntimeException e) {
         if (e.getStatus().getCode() == Status.Code.UNAVAILABLE) {
@@ -262,6 +273,46 @@ private void shutDownWorkerPool() {
     }
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Starts a background keepalive loop to keep the gRPC connection alive.
+   * This is an application-level keepalive to prevent AWS ALBs from
+   * killing idle HTTP/2 connections.
+   */
+  private synchronized void startKeepaliveLoop() {
+    stopKeepaliveLoop();
+    ScheduledExecutorService scheduler = Executors.newSingleThreadScheduledExecutor(r -> {
+      Thread t = new Thread(r, "durabletask-keepalive");
+      t.setDaemon(true);
+      return t;
+    });
+    try {
+      scheduler.scheduleWithFixedDelay(() -> {
+        try {
+          this.sidecarClient
+              .withDeadlineAfter(5, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
+              .hello(Empty.getDefaultInstance());
+        } catch (StatusRuntimeException e) {
+          logger.log(Level.FINE, "keepalive failed", e);
+        }
+      }, KEEPALIVE_INTERVAL_SECONDS, KEEPALIVE_INTERVAL_SECONDS, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
+    } catch (RuntimeException e) {
+      scheduler.shutdownNow();
+      throw e;
+    }
+    this.keepaliveScheduler = scheduler;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Stops the background keepalive loop if one is running.
+   */
+  private synchronized void stopKeepaliveLoop() {
+    ScheduledExecutorService scheduler = this.keepaliveScheduler;
+    this.keepaliveScheduler = null;
+    if (scheduler != null) {
+      scheduler.shutdownNow();
+    }
+  }
+
   private String getSidecarAddress() {
     return this.sidecarClient.getChannel().authority();
   }