WILLIAMSTOWN - The water boil advisory in place for a sizable portion of the Williamstown water system is expected to be lifted by this evening, an official said.

"The (work) went very well and I don't see any problems," said Bob Kimball, city public works director.

About 25 percent of the city did not have water service beginning around 7:30 a.m. Monday as city workers shut off valves to replace a fire hydrant at the intersection of Third Street and Highland Avenue.

"We got the hydrant replaced and all the lines flushed without trouble," Kimball said.

City workers started work on the hydrant around 7:30 a.m. and had water samples taken and the hydrant replaced with water service restored by 11 a.m. The replacement of the fire hydrant was expected to take eight hours, from 8 a.m. when the water is drained until 4 p.m. when the water is brought back.

"It was quick work without any surprises," Kimball said.

Before Christmas Kimball had been concerned about how the hydrant replacement would go or how many city water customers would be affected because of possible damage to the valves.

"The job had the potential to make us turn off water to most of the city," he said. "We had no idea how it would go until we did the work."

Kimball said the way the valves are sectioned off to different parts of the city, it was difficult for him to predict what areas of town and how many customers would be without water.

"I wanted to let everyone know that there was a chance they would lose water and have to boil it once it came back," he said.

Kimball said that while the work looked good and the on-site tests of the water came back with good levels of chlorine, the boil advisory will continue until the results come back on the five samples sent to the lab.

"I didn't need to take all five samples, but just thought it wouldn't hurt," he said.

Results are expected back around 4 p.m. today.

"As soon as I know what the lab tests show, I'll be alerting everyone that they can stop boiling water," Kimball said.

The hydrant needed to be replaced because a vehicle struck it and broke it off its base sometime in November.

It is unknown who the driver was or when the accident occurred because it was not reported to the Williamstown Police Department, said Kimball, who was notified of the damage around Thanksgiving.

Kimball said he waited so long to replace the hydrant for several reasons, including not wanting Williamstown High School to be without water while students were in school.

Although the water is restored and the hydrant replaced, Kimball said work is not finished on the project

"We still have to pour the concrete to fix the sidewalk," Kimball said. "I'm going to wait until a warmer day to do that."