Traffic is expected to be reduced to one lane through Tuesday on a portion of Tennessee Street near 14th Street while city crews work to repair a hole that was formed by a collapsed sewer line.

If that scenario sounds familiar to Lawrence motorists, it should. It was a collapsed sewer line in February that led construction crews to close the busy intersection at Eighth and Kentucky streets for approximately two weeks.

A city spokeswoman today, though, said she didn’t expect this repair to inconvenience motorists for that long.

“Based on what we know right now, we don’t anticipate this being similar to the Kentucky Street situation,” Patterson said. “This is just an eight inch line that is only six feet deep.”

The line on Kentucky Street was larger and was 25 feet deep, which added considerable time to the repair.

The Tennessee Street hole is just south of 14th Street. Tennessee is a one way street to the south. Patterson said the west lane of traffic will be closed today and during the day tomorrow. Both lanes of traffic are expected to be open tonight, when crews are not working. The hole, which is several feet long, developed right near the sidewalk where cars are allowed to park.

Age is suspected as the prime reason for the collapse of the line. The exact age of the clay pipe wasn’t immediately known, but Patterson said it was old. She said the line was scheduled to be replaced next summer.

“We knew this area was in need of attention,” Patterson said.

City crews only will make a “spot repair” of the line. Complete replacement of the line won’t occur until next summer as part of the larger project. Patterson said it wasn’t feasible to completely replace the line now because preliminary engineering work for the larger project has not been completed.

The collapsed line has not, nor is it expected to, disrupt sewer service to any of the homes or businesses in the area.