The traffic headaches that were supposed to happen Wednesday near the Sixth and Massachusetts intersection are now happening today.

Overnight rain on Tuesday caused construction crews to delay their work on repaving Sixth Street between Massachusetts to Missouri streets, city spokeswoman Megan Gilliland said. Now that work is happening today.

City Hall leaders are urging motorists to stay away from the area. In particular, the city is asking motorists to not use the downtown Kansas River bridges during the work. Instead, they’re suggesting motorists coming from the north use the Kansas Turnpike bridge, which will allow people to enter the city through the West Lawrence interchange.

The downtown bridges remain open, but all southbound traffic exiting the bridges will be funneled to the west. In other words, traffic won’t be able to access the downtown area from the bridges. Left turns onto Tennessee Street also will be prohibited. Massachusetts Street also will be closed at Seventh Street in order to prohibit people who are leaving downtown to access the area near the bridges.

The bridge disruptions are expected to last until early evening. The overall paving project for Sixth Street is expected to conclude Aug. 12. After crews finish paving the stretch of Sixth Street from Massachusetts to Kentucky, work will shift to repaving Sixth Street from Kentucky to Missouri. The project ultimately will repave Sixth Street all the way to Iowa Street.