BLOOMINGTON - Washington Street between Madison and Lee streets in downtown Bloomington may be closed to traffic until Friday because of street damage caused Monday by a break in a hydrant lead that fed off a water main.

Damage to the street is more extensive than the city can repair with its equipment, Kurt Haas said Monday night at the scene of the hydrant lead break at Washington and Roosevelt streets. Haas is superintendent of operations for the city's public works department.

An outside contractor will need to tear off the top surface of the pavement and fix any voids, then put on a new base of material and put surface asphalt on top, Haas said. Weather permitting, the two blocks of Washington Street could reopen to traffic Friday, he said.

At about 5 p.m. Monday, water was bubbling up from cracks in buckled pavement at the intersection of Washington and Roosevelt streets. Water filled the intersection, prompting police to divert traffic from the two blocks.

Water service was shut off to three buildings in the 300 block of West Washington Street - The Pantagraph, the Elks and the Golden Rule Building - as workers with the city water department dug into the pavement to try to find the break, said Brett Lueschen, the city's assistant superintendent for water distribution. No flooding was reported in any of the buildings, he said.

Lueschen said the break was in an 8-inch hydrant lead that fed off a 12-inch water main for a fire hydrant at the southwest corner of the intersection.

The cause of the break could be the age of the pipe or fluctuation in water pressure, Lueschen said Monday night as work continued behind him.

Water service was restored to the three buildings at 10:05 p.m. Monday. Repair work - including placing a stainless steel clamp over the break - continued late Monday night and was expected to be completed soon.

Assistant Fire Chief Steven Giusti was at the scene Monday night, aware that water service had been temporarily interrupted to three fire hydrants. He said firefighters had enough fire hose available if a fire had broken out on the two blocks.