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Crews break ground and work to remove and replace lead-tainted pipes from three homes, two on the 1200 block of Durand Street pictured here and a third at the 1700 block of Arizona Avenue, during first day of the second phase under Mayor Karen Weaver's Fast Start program. The program launched in March and has replaced infrastructure at 33 Flint homes. There are an estimated 250 homes pegged to have service lines replaced during the program's second phase. Jake May | MLive.com
FLINT, MI - Crews have replaced lead-tainted pipes at nearly 500 Flint homes, according Flint officials.
Mayor Karen Weaver announced earlier this month that she is hoping at least 1,000 homes will have new water lines before winter hits under her Fast Start Program, which launched in March to replace lead-tainted pipes in Flint.
So far, crews have replaced service lines at 460 homes, according to a Nov. 21 press release from Flint's spokeswoman, Kristin Moore.
Under the Fast Start program, Weaver said at least 15,000 homes in Flint have been identified as priority homes. About 5,000 of those homes have been slotted to have infrastructure replaced during the third phase of the Fast Start program, which started sometime in October with the goal of initially replacing infrastructure at 788 homes. The rest of the 5,000 homes are planned to be worked on next spring when the weather breaks.
Weaver said she is still pushing to have infrastructure replaced in the entire city, which she estimates to be about 40,000 homes.
"We're hoping to have 1,000 completed before the end of this year," Weaver said. "We want the whole city to have new infrastructure."
The Fast Start program launched in March using money provided by the state under a $500,000 contract with Rowe Engineering. The city used $2 million, which the state repaid Flint for reconnecting to Detroit's water system last year, to continue replacing infrastructure in Flint during Fast Start's second phase.
The third phase is being funded with $25 million approved by the Michigan Legislature in June that was allocated for replacing Flint's lead-tainted pipes.
The second phase started Aug. 19 with officials contacting property owners to gain permission to replace lead-tainted water lines in their homes. The consent also gave officials permission to monitor lead levels in water at the homes with lines replaced.
On Oct. 17, crews wrapped up the second phase of the program replacing pipes at 218 homes over the summer months on Flint's east, west and southwest sides. The work was completed by WT Stevens Construction Inc., Johnson & Wood Mechanical and Goyette Mechanical.