Washington Street was reopened to traffic Wednesday after being closed almost three weeks to repair two broken lines.

The street was blocked from South Street north to Clay Street Oct. 4 after a city sewer department crew found a broken 24-inch storm drain under the street at Washington and Crawford. The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Oct. 4 declared an emergency, which allowed the board to hire a contractor without having to go through the bid process.

Hemphill Construction was hired to make the repairs.

The broken storm drain was discovered when a city sewer department crew ran a video camera through the line. The broken 6-inch sewer line was discovered after crews began digging under the street to reach the storm drain.

Both damaged lines are more than 100 years old, and are about 10 feet in the ground.

Public works director Garnet Van Norman said the storm drain, which flows into a more than 100-year-old brick drainage tunnel under the street, broke first and began sucking out the dirt supporting the sewer line, which was above it. When its support was removed, he said, the sewer line collapsed. He said people downtown had been complaining about an odor in the area.