Syracuse, N.Y. — Repairing a busted water transmission line in Cicero could take longer than the two weeks originally estimated, officials said today, extending the amount of time residents and businesses in six Central New York towns need to keep conserving water.

Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said the complicated repair could take more than two weeks, but didn’t give a specific time frame.

“We’re anticipating it will take longer than two weeks, just from a planning standpoint,” McMahon said. “If they hit the two-week number, that’s good, considering all the complexities and other things that remain out of their control. If that goes a little bit later, we’re ready for that.”

A crucial piece of equipment needed to start the first phase of work won’t arrive until Friday, said Jeff Brown, executive director of the Onondaga County Water Authority.

News of an extension of the time to complete the repair comes at the same time conservation efforts by users have stabilized reservoirs supplying tens of thousands of customers in Onondaga and Madison counties.

Today marks the first day since the rupture was reported on Saturday that the amount of water being pumped into reservoirs in Manlius is equal to the amount being used by customers. The water levels in those reservoirs in Manlius have stabilized thanks to community conservation measures and OCWA’s successful efforts to find other water supplies, officials said.

“If we continue this trend, we are cautiously optimistic we can get through this,” McMahon said.

The conservation efforts have been supplemented by water supplies from neighboring agencies. The city of Syracuse is sending an additional 800,000 gallons a day into DeWitt, and the city of Oneida is supplying the same amount to areas in Madison County.

At the same time, officials are urging residents in DeWitt and Madison County — and throughout the six-town area — to keep conserving. If usage increases, that will make it more likely some areas will lose water completely.

The rupture in a 42-inch-diameter transmission line in Cicero cut off the water supply to six towns in eastern Onondaga County and western Madison County. Those areas typically use 5 million gallons a day, but conservation efforts have reduced usage to about 3.5 million gallons per day, officials said today.

That’s a critical threshold because authorities said they can provide about 3.5 million gallons a day to the pair of enclosed tanks on Green Lakes Road in Manlius.

That means the risk of communities, particularly those in Manlius and Pompey, of running out of water by this weekend has dropped — but it’s not gone.

“Unfortunately, the village of Manlius and the northern parts of the town of Pompey are the most likely to run out of water and, as it stands now, could lose water sometime this weekend,” Manlius Mayor Hank Chapman posted on the village website this morning.

Those areas are most vulnerable because they’re at the far reaches of the OCWA system and farthest from the additional sources of water flowing into the system, Chapman said.

In the event that water does run out, Onondaga County is storing 30,000 gallons of water at the Oncenter in downtown Syracuse. Madison County started handing out water today.

The replacement of nearly 150 feet of pipe could take weeks, officials said, because of the complexity of the task. The first step is driving sheets of metal 40 feet into the ground, essentially creating a bathtub around the section to be repaired so groundwater can be pumped out.

The pile driver that will push those metal sheets into the soil won’t arrive until Friday, Brown said.

The lengthiest phase of the repair will be pumping out the groundwater contained within the metal sheeting so work crews can remove the old concrete pipe and replace it with iron pipes. Brown said it could take 10 pumps to dewater the site.

Officials have issued a mandatory conservation notice, telling customers to limit their non-essential water usage.