Sewer line work is closing one lane of Washington Street this weekend.

The area of Washington Street between Clay and China streets and in front of Marcus Furniture is down to one lane because of an issue with the sewer line beneath the street and below the building.

City sewer department manager Willie McCroy said he thought there was a hole in the line, but once opening the ground it turned out there was a concrete mud that got in the sewer during a waterline repair.

“It’s hard to see what’s going on under the ground until you get into it,” McCroy said.

He said repairs made to the waterline last year contributed to the current sewer line problem, which has caused part of the street to start to sink.

The issue was brought to light when water started getting in the basement below Marcus Furniture. The city is working with Piazza Plumbing Company to fix the problem in the basement below the furniture store. McCroy said his crew will be able to finish their work backfilling the sewer once Piazza has completed their portion of the project.

“They got a stub out, which is a sewer tap that comes out the building that ties on to our line, the main line, and they’ve got to make some adjustments to those,” McRoy said. “Once they finish we’ll come in and backfill all this here.”

Then the city street department will come in to repair the road. The sewer department started working on the problem last Friday, and McCroy hopes to have it completed by Monday.

“[Thursday] Piazza is going to come inside and re-do his line so by Monday I think we should have everything wrapped up,” McCroy said adding a lot depends on the weather.