Repairs to a broken water main are expected to disrupt traffic on a portion of 23rd Street for several hours this evening.

Westbound traffic from Louisiana to Alabama will be reduced to one lane for much of Thursday evening as crews repair a broken water main.

Crews began repairs around 4:30 p.m. Thursday, and city officials said they estimated it would take “several hours” before normal traffic flow through the area could resume. The work will require the northern-most, or outer lane, of westbound traffic to be closed.

The broken pipe, which is an 8-inch main installed in 1954, will cause some businesses on both the north and south sides of 23rd Street to be without water while repairs are under way. The city has notified those businesses of the water outages.