BREA

One of the city’s oldest and most used thoroughfares is in the middle of more than $3 million in utility and road repair projects designed to make Birch Street smoother, wider, and equipped with new underground gas lines, fiber-optic cables and traffic safety mechanisms. Work is to be completed by 2003.

Right now, the street is being carved up by the Southern California Gas Co., which is replacing an old natural gas line. A series of steel plates covers pits dug into the asphalt from Orange Avenue to Randolph Street. City Engineer Phil Wray said the pits should be filled in by the end of next week.