As the weather begins to warm each spring, road construction and maintenance heats up also. Hundreds of highway construction workers return to their roadside offices this spring to support the three million Arkansans and countless others who depend on the highway system.
During this season, groups nationwide seek to raise awareness about the inherent dangers that roadway workers endure. These men and women support their families by building infrastructure that the traveling public relies upon. In a twisted irony, the traveling public is the biggest threat to road workers’ ability to return home to their loved ones each day.
I have been proud to watch our safety efforts grow through the past several years. Shannon Newton and the Arkansas Trucking Association were on board from the beginning. The Trucking Association understands the importance of work zone safety, because highways are the truckers’ work zones and they are keenly aware of the challenges and dangers that distracted and unsafe driving bring.
Arkansas State Police and their Highway Safety Office work alongside ARDOT and Arkansas Highway Police to educate the public and enforce safety laws. Collaborations yielded campaigns that correlate to a reduction in work zone crashes over the past several years. ARDOT’s current campaign, Slow Down, Phone Down, will wrap up this summer with hard-hitting messages from real people who were impacted by work zone incidents.
ARDOT’s new Street Smart curriculum, developed in partnership with the Arkansas Department of Education, seeks to educate our youth about roadway safety before they ever get behind the wheel. Street Smart will continue to grow in 2026, tackling topics ranging from work zone safety, impaired driving, and commercial motor vehicle blind spots. I encourage you to check out the material at streetsmartar.org, but more importantly, I implore you to share it with the people in your life.
Collaboration with industry partners like Associated General Contractors of Arkansas, Arkansas Asphalt Pavement Association, and American Concrete Pavement Association Oklahoma/Arkansas Chapter has never been stronger. Partnering meetings with these groups lead to changes to operating procedures in work zones that improve efficiency and safety for all users.
Our efforts grew further in 2025 with legislation passed to enhance safety for road workers. We expanded the use of green lights on work vehicles, fines doubled in mobile work zones, and work zone information is included in the driver’s manual and on the test. I am thankful to our state legislators who saw the need for and supported these important and impactful efforts.
I am also thankful for Speaker Evans’ leadership in this space. He is a strong advocate for the transportation industry and draws on his experience and his office to amplify the message. His vision for a new campaign to raise awareness about the importance of moving over for all roadway workers and emergency responders is expected to roll out late this summer.
National Work Zone Awareness Week is April 20–24 this year. ARDOT and industry partners will spend a considerable effort that week creating content, doing interviews, and raising awareness about this important topic. While we will amplify our efforts during this awareness week, work zone safety is top of mind year-round.
The future is strong for transportation in Arkansas as long as we remain committed to communicating, innovating, and taking action. This work must be done. This work matters.
Stay safe. I’ll see you out there on our highways.