Arkansas Department of Transportation

Story

The Arkansas Department of Transportation is a government department in the U.S. state of Arkansas. Its mission is to provide a safe, efficient, aesthetically pleasing and environmentally sound intermodal transportation system for the user. The Department is responsible for implementing policy made by the Arkansas State Highway Commission, an board of officials appointed by the Governor of Arkansas to direct transportation policy in the state. The Department's director is appointed by the Commission to hire staff and manage construction and maintenance on Arkansas's highways.The primary duty of ArDOT is the maintenance and management of the over 16,000mi Arkansas Highway System. The Department also conducts planning, public transportation, the State Aid County Road Program, the Arkansas Highway Police, and Federal-Aid project administration. Its headquarters are in Little Rock.HistoryOriginally started as a commission of three elected officials in 1913, the agency had since expanded over the years to include a director and five commissioners appointed by the governor as well as its powers to include full oversight into the planning, construction, and maintenance of Arkansas roads.AHTD and the Nebraska Department of Roads were the only state transportation agencies in the United States whose name still refers to "highways" or "roads"; all are now known as the "(name of state) Department of Transportation" after the U.S. Department of Transportation. The "Highway" in AHTD's name was largely required by the Arkansas Constitution which created the Arkansas Highway Commission as its governing body; the Constitution still calls it the "State Highway Department", but the legislature added "and Transportation" to its name in 1977. Many people in Arkansas continue to call it the "Highway Department" to this day.