FLINT, MI - An international engineering firm will oversee Flint's massive lead pipe replacement efforts in the new year.

To the tune of a $5 million contract with the city, Los Angeles-based AECOM will supervise the Flint Action and Sustainability Team (FAST) Start program, which was previously managed by General Michael McDaniel and members of the Michigan National Guard.

Flint City Council unanimously approved the 13-month contract for $5,054,671 - set to begin Friday, Dec. 1 - earlier this week.

Following the city's lead-in-water crisis, Flint is under an order from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to make water system improvements and agreed in settling a lawsuit to investigate 18,000 lead and galvanized water service lines by 2020.

Although the FAST program got off to slow beginnings in 2016 - replacing only 899 lead lines out of the goal 6,000 - McDaniel said he is leaving the program in good shape as crews are nearly complete with investigating water service lines at 6,000 Flint homes in 2017.

As of Monday, Nov. 30, crews have replaced 4,955 lead and lead-tainted pipes in Flint in 2017, and a grand total of 5,854 pipes since the program began in 2016, according to a release from the city.

The rate of lead pipe replacement is lower than originally planned because crews are finding a high number of copper pipes in the city, which don't need to be replaced, McDaniel said.

While crews from the four contractors awarded the replacement were initially set to stop for the winter on Nov. 22, McDaniel said good weather has allowed them to push that deadline to Dec. 15 in hopes of meeting the 6,000 pipe replacement goal.

The four contractors - Goyette Mechanical, Lang Construction Inc., WT Stevens, and Waldorf & Sons - were awarded the work after a controversial re-bid in March and are being paid from a $100 million grant from the federal Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act and a $20 million match from the state Department of Environmental Quality and Children Health Insurance grants.

Initially, Goyette Mechanical came in as the lowest bid but did not format their offer correctly, so the city re-bid the multi-million dollar contracts to four separate pipe companies, McDaniel previously said.

Goyette has completed its target work for the year, while Lang, WT Stevens and Waldorf & Sons around 90 percent complete and are expected to finish work by the Dec. 15 deadline, McDaniel said.

He said Flint is still considering forcing the contractors to pay back the money for work they didn't complete by the original November deadline.

Mayor Karen Weaver praised the retired National Guard brigadier general's leadership in pipe replacement project.

"I cannot say enough about General McDaniel, and what his commitment as project manager of FAST Start, has meant to the success of the pipe replacement program," Weaver said in a statement. "Under his leadership, we launched the project last spring, now nearly 6,000 lead-tainted pipes have been replaced. General McDaniel has spent countless hours working on this project, at times even working without pay. I know he will continue to help us successfully transition the FAST Start initiative to the new project manager, which will allow him to devote more time to his teaching and other professional and personal commitments. But, we are truly thankful for all he has done, and the guidance he continues to provide, as we work to remove and replace the lead-tainted pipes in Flint."

McDaniel's contract concluded with the city in October, but he said he's sticking with the program through the end of December to aid in the leadership transition before passing the torch to AECOM in January.

In addition to overseeing efforts to replace 18,000 lead and lead-tainted pipes in Flint by 2020, AECOM will also assist the city in filling its many vacant positions as well as providing "resources at various levels to help get projects done," newly-named Director of Public Works Rob Binscik told city council on Monday, Nov. 27.

Before council confirmed Binscik's appointment to the top job in the city's public works department earlier this month, the position remained vacant for two years after Howard Croft - since charged with false pretenses and conspiracy to commit false pretenses for his role in the Flint water crisis - resigned in November 2015.

"Flint is still left very lean staffing-wise, and we have struggled to handle this internally or even seek help externally ... We have a hard time bringing people on that want to come here and work," Binscik told the council. "But we need (AECOM's) capacity because we've had zero capital improvement in our water system for many years. So now, it's like we're trying to go from zero to 100 miles an hour and we have to have the help to stand the capital improvement."

AECOM - one of America's largest employers with clients in more than 150 countries worldwide, according to its website - plans to involve and offer jobs for Flint residents in its pipe replacement work, said Senior Vice President Joseph Moss.

Moss said the company - also responsible for designing the new Little Ceasar's Arena in Detroit - conducted a similar program in Miami-Dade County, Fla., putting 6,500 residents to work to construct a multi-million-dollar sewer tunnel.

"It changed lives," he said.