BREA

The city next week will spotlight a new way for shoppers to get to the Birch Street Promenade: by bridge. Motorists and pedestrians will be able to enter Birch Street from Berry Street using the Mercury Lane Bridge following the opening ceremony, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Plans for the single-span, reinforced concrete bridge over the Brea Canyon flood-control canal were drawn up four years ago, about the time the west Birch Street parking structure was designed, said Phil Wray, city engineer. With the hundreds of cars the parking structure could hold, the city figured the Promenade would need some help.

“At that time we were in need of another entrance,” he said. “You just can’t cram all those cars down Birch Street.”