After more than two decades of planning and five years of construction, the $2.4 billion Alameda Corridor freight rail expressway was completed on time and on budget. The “We Did It” video succeeded in bringing together diverse, and often competing, groups and individuals to support and document the development, construction and completion of a project that benefits not only the region, but a nation that is dependent upon the movement of goods and materials.

The objective of the program was to create an entertaining video presentation suitable for a broad spectrum of audiences that explained the Alameda Corridor project, its purpose and need, and followed the project through 20 years of planning and five years of construction to completion.

Faced with the daunting challenge of summarizing 20 years of planning and five years of construction, Adler Public Affairs needed to find a visually gripping and meaningful way to tell the story. APA chose to use a combination of archival footage and aerial shots along with testimonials from a set of diverse, and often competing, project participants. T

he result was an engaging mix of project participants sharing in the success and reveling in the fact that as a group…We Did It!

The video made its debut at the Alameda Corridor Grand Opening event, April 12, 2002. It was shown on two 9’ x 12’ outdoor LED screens before a crowd of over 2,000, including the United States Secretary of Transportation, Norman Y. Mineta, and the Governor of California, Gray Davis.

The video features more than 20 individuals representing a variety of stakeholders, including the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, cities along the project area, the County of Los Angeles, disadvantaged business enterprises and job training participants. Each one of these participants was proud to be a part of the project and proud to say… We Did It!

The debut received a standing ovation from a crowd of over 2,000. Since then, the video has been shown hundreds of times to groups ranging from legislators to civic groups, to audiences from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. Over 500 copies have been produced and distributed.