City leaders say three DNA processing contracts worth $305,000 should clear up Austin’s rape kit backlog once and for all.

Austin City Council members on Wednesday unanimously approved the contracts with Forensic Science Solutions, Marshall University Research, and Riley, Welch and LaPorte & Associates Forensic Laboratories. The move is the most recent in a series of efforts to address untested forensic evidence after concerns about widespread evidence mishandling forced Austin police to shut down their own DNA processing in 2016.

“The sexual assault kit backlog has cast a shadow on Austin and has been a weight on the shoulders of many survivors for years,” Council Member Alison Alter said. “I’m heartened to see a light at the end of the tunnel in what has been a very painful chapter for many women in our community.”

RELATED: City Council looks to improve testing of DNA evidence

Police last year said they had “cleared” the department’s backlog of thousands of untested rape kits dating back to the 1990s, meaning all kits had been tested. But 1,300 of those are still awaiting a second round of processing and analysis that can only be done in certain approved labs.

“Our sexual assault backlog was only cleared through the first level of analysis and still needed to go through the technical review and (Combined DNA Index System) upload before we could say the backlog was truly cleared,” Alter said. “We were awaiting the second part of that effort, and I’m happy to see it before us today.”

Once testing is complete, results can be entered into a national system allowing DNA to be stored and searched. City leaders expect testing to wrap up in the fall.

Council members had approved contracts with two other labs to do DNA analysis and processing in April, but they were to process current and future cases, not the backlogged ones.

The new contracts will increase the number of rape kits that can be reviewed monthly from 30 to 300, according to a staff memo. At the rate cases have been reviewed, it would have taken until 2023 to get through them. Now, that process will take only a few months, Alter said.

BACKGROUND: Victims, advocates plead with city leaders to resolve rape kit backlog

Survivors of sexual assault turned out to City Council meetings in droves after the Austin Police Department lab’s shutdown halted its testing three years ago. The department suspended operations at its DNA lab after the Texas Forensic Science Commission raised concerns about lack of supervision and evidence mishandling there. Even before the lab closed, some survivors had seen their cases on hold for months or years awaiting evidence tests.

Of 2,665 rape kits that had undergone first-round testing as of February — some dating back decades — about 35 percent returned DNA, according to a memo from Assistant City Manager Rey Arellano.

“We’re still moving forward with our independent, third-party evaluation of how sexual assault is managed,” Alter said after Wednesday’s vote. “We moreover have a really long way to go in shifting our culture to the point where one believes survivors.”