AASHTO Journal - Arkansas DOT Unveils Fallen Worker Memorial

On October 9, the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) unveiled a new “Fallen Worker Memorial” to honor the men and women who died in the line of duty while building, maintaining, and protecting the state’s transportation system.

[Above photo by ARDOT]

The memorial’s dedication event featured the families of fallen ARDOT employees, members of the Arkansas Highway Commission, current and retired ARDOT employees, and transportation industry colleagues.

“This monument not only pays tribute to the ARDOT men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice but also serves as a strong reminder: safety must come first for everyone – the driving public and the worker out there,” noted Jared Wiley, ARDOT’s director, during the event. “We are all in this together.”

Planning for the memorial began more than two years ago during the tenure of Lorie Tudor, ARDOT’s previous director.

“In May 2023, we lost a young man who was attempting to remove debris from the road and was struck and killed. Since I had become director, he was the sixth employee we had lost,” she recalled at the memorial dedication event.

“When the tragedy happened, the orange cones were on display in the auditorium and it just seemed so inadequate,” Tudor added. “That is when we began in earnest to figure out how to build a memorial that was worthy of the sacrifice of our fallen employees.”

In April 2024, during a safety event for National Work Zone Awareness Week, ARDOT launched a fundraising effort to help construct a permanent fallen worker memorial monument.

At the time, Tudor also encouraged employees to submit ideas for the design of the memorial, with a concept submitted by Edgar Ariza selected as the winning entry.

The finished memorial now occupies landscaped grounds on the east side of ARDOT’s Central Office Complex in Little Rock, AR. The memorial’s foundation is 26-feet wide, 10-feet long, and 2-feet deep; surrounded by a walking trail that is approximately 190 feet long.

Each of the memorial tower columns weighs just under 17.5 tons. To build the entire memorial itself required 85 tons of concrete, seven tons of asphalt, 1.82 tons of rebar, and approximately 1,500 bricks, ARDOT said.