Caltrans District 7 and City of Burbank: I-5 Widening Project
CPOG managed the outreach program for I-5 North corridor on behalf of Caltrans District 7’s $1.3 billion dollar improvement effort to widen the I-5. CPOG ensured that stakeholder education and engagement in multiple communities with multiple translation and interpretation needs were met.
As part of its responsibilities, CPOG managed the construction outreach for the Empire Avenue Grade Separation. The grade separation involved realignment and elevation of the existing Metrolink track and siding, and construction of new grade separations at Empire Avenue and Buena Vista Street. Upon completion of the grade separation in 2017, CPOG planned and managed a ribbon cutting event to celebrate the project milestone. Key elected officials and agency leaders including City of Glendale Councilmember Ara Najarian, City of Burbank Vice Mayor Jess Talamantes, Caltrans District 7 then-Director Carrie Bowen, Metrolink then-CEO Art Leahy, and Metrolink then-Vice Chair Brian Humphrey and more than 100 guests attended the event. CPOG developed and executed outreach strategies for the project to multiple adjacent residential neighborhoods and businesses with an aggressive and extensive outreach strategy to ensure that residents as well as travelers and visitors knew about the project and its benefit to the community, its timeline, and planned and emergency closures and detours.
CPOG’s work also included database development and maintenance, website content management, creation of project flyers, construction notices, fact sheets, newsletters, weekly construction alerts, administration of a 24-hour/7-day live response hotline, development and facilitation of in-person and virtual community meetings, management of the Speaker’s Bureau, assistance to Caltrans with government and media relations, translations, canvassing, city council and staff briefings, presentations to community groups, press releases/ media advisories, creation and production of short videos (Biteables) for long- term impactful closures, and social media content for digital platforms including Twitter.
The outreach program developed 3,500-plus social media followers, surpassed more than 1.3 million Twitter impressions, responded to more than 2,000 helpline calls, distributed more than 50,000 flyers about construction and operation-specific events, hosted three ribbon cutting ceremonies, and sent out more than 300 weekly construction alerts.