A boil advisory will remain in effect today for part of the city after a double water main break forced evacuation Tuesday of the Butler County Government Services Center and the Hamilton Municipal Building.

Both buildings reopened to the public at noon Wednesday, according to Jim Collins, Hamilton’s underground utilities director. The city building’s water service was restored about 8:30 a.m., about two hours after the county building’s water service was restored.

A boil advisory will remain in effect until Thursday afternoon on Court Street between South Third Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard, Collins said.

In addition to water flooding both buildings, he said there was a lot of water in the city’s customer service center on the first floor and the Information Technology office and the 911 Communication Center in the basement area. Water also got into the electrical vault between both buildings.

The sidewalk outside the buildings on Court Street was lifted and buckled in several sections as a result of the water main break. Some curb and pavement will have to be replaced, Collins said.

Collins did not know how much water was lost as a result of the water main break and a cost estimate on the damages had not been made as of late Wednesday afternoon

The city’s water department crews completed repairs at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday on an 8-inch main that had a 2-inch hole, Collins said. He said that portion of pipe was an old cast iron pipe that was put in during the 1920s.

“We’ve never had a break on that section because the 1920s pipe was a better made pipe than what was made in the 1950s and 1960s,” he said. “The material was made more stronger then.”

That repair held, but another leak was later found — a 7-foot longitudinal split on a 10-foot section of pipe.

Collins said the city put in a new 10-foot section of pipe to fix the leak.