Here's the headline number: the Department of Design and Construction is carrying 992 capital projects with a combined project budget of $43.49 billion in the City's financial system as of May 2026, per the City's Capital Projects Dashboard — about 786 of them active, the rest completed, cancelled or on hold. About $12.87 billion of that is already spent. That makes DDC the biggest construction manager in city government by project count, and it goes back and forth with DEP for biggest by dollars.
Now, before you get excited — none of it is DDC's money. Not a dollar. This is installment three of our Agency Contractor Series, after the SCA's $21 billion school plan and the MTA's 2027 budget, and DDC is the odd one of the three: it's the City's in-house builder, not an owner. It delivers libraries, firehouses, precincts, courthouses, shelters, health facilities, streets, sewers, water mains, plazas and coastal-resiliency work for other agencies. Those agencies hold the budget and set the scope. When a DDC solicitation hits PASSPort, the dollars behind it belong to DOT, DEP, Parks, DCAS, the library systems or — in the single biggest case — the Department of Correction.
“DDC's $43 billion isn't a pipeline. It's the sum of other agencies' projects, almost 40 percent of it four jails that are already somebody else's contract.”
So the money story here is really a story about whose money it is. And the three numbers you'll see quoted for DDC are three different things. Keep them straight:
| The number | What it actually is | Source |
|---|---|---|
| $43.49 billion | Total project budget across the 992 DDC-managed projects carried in the City's financial system as of May 2026 — about 786 active, the rest completed, cancelled or on hold. Lifetime project cost, not annual spending. | Capital Projects Dashboard, May 2026 reporting period |
| $26.87 billion | Planned capital commitments across 2,132 DDC-managed project lines in the FY2026 Adopted Capital Commitment Plan. A commitment is a plan to register a contract — a market signal, not a purchase order. | DCP Capital Projects Database, FY2026 Adopted plan version |
| $5.4 billion | DDC's own statement of its annual capital commitments, which it says has more than doubled since 2022. That's money actually put under contract in a year. | DDC press release, Dec. 16, 2025 |
Think of it as four steps, and the money only gets real at the last one. A planned commitment becomes a registered contract only when an award is made and the Comptroller registers it. A registered contract becomes a check only as you bill the work. Every figure in this piece is labeled as one of those — and if somebody quotes you a DDC number without saying which one it is, ask. One more thing: the tables below count everything the system carries for DDC, completed jobs included. That's why the phase table further down is the one to read for what's actually open.
Now, there's a fourth set of numbers, and somebody's going to quote them at you, so here they are: OMB's own DDC lines in the FY2027 Executive Capital Commitment Plan (May 2026). FY2026: $5.41 billion authorized ($5,409,348K in OMB's table), against a commitment target of $3,727 million. FY2027: $7.17 billion authorized ($7,169,952K), target $5,730 million, and that one's preliminary. Looking back, DDC actually committed $2,636 million in FY2024; in FY2025 it planned $4,177 million and committed $4,732 million — 113 percent of plan. OMB only reports by agency two years out, so there is no DDC line for FY2028 through FY2030. Don't go looking for one. And a caution: DDC's "$5.4 billion" a year and OMB's FY2025 actual of $4,732 million aren't the same basis — OMB leaves out inter-fund agreements — so don't add them up, and don't call one a miss against the other.
Whose budget is it? Four jails, then everybody else. Group the book by the agency that sponsors the work (one row per FMS project; figures are total project budget, May 2026):
| Sponsor agency | Projects | Project budget | Spent to date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Department of Correction (borough-based jails) | 9 | $16.16 billion | $2.79 billion |
| Department of Transportation | 311 | $8.42 billion | $1.73 billion |
| No sponsor label in the City's data (mostly highway, sewer and water-main budget lines) | 256 | $4.86 billion | $2.43 billion |
| Department of Environmental Protection | 142 | $4.76 billion | $1.72 billion |
| Parks | 31 | $2.99 billion | $1.68 billion |
| DCAS (city-owned buildings, courts) | 56 | $1.73 billion | $541 million |
| NYPD | 10 | $586 million | $256 million |
| Mayor's Office of Resiliency | 1 | $461 million | $246 million |
| Cultural Affairs | 40 | $453 million | $180 million |
| Sanitation | 7 | $437 million | $405 million |
| Administration for Children's Services | 2 | $417 million | $40 million |
| Queens Public Library | 25 | $409 million | $102 million |
| Homeless Services | 27 | $403 million | $131 million |
| Brooklyn Public Library | 26 | $277 million | $78 million |
| All others (DOHMH, FDNY, NYPL, HRA, HPD, H+H, NYCHA and joint lines) | 49 | $1.118 billion | $544 million |
Look at that top row. The four borough-based jails — Queens ($4.47 billion), Manhattan ($4.32 billion), Bronx ($3.42 billion) and Brooklyn ($3.35 billion), plus a $433 million program-management line — are 37 percent of everything DDC is managing by dollars, on nine projects out of 992. All four are design-build, all four are already under contract, and they're 17 percent spent. So unless you're on one of those teams' sub lists, the jails aren't a bid market for you. They're a subcontracting market, and the door is the design-build team, not the City.
Strip the jails out and DDC's book is $27.33 billion across the other 983 projects — completed and cancelled ones still in that count — and it's overwhelmingly dirt-and-pipe work. Those 256 projects with no sponsor named carry highway (HW), sewer (SE) and water-main (WM) budget-line codes, and in practice they look like the DOT/DEP street-and-utility program that DDC's Infrastructure division delivers. We want to be straight about that: it's our read of the budget-line codes, not a label in the City's data.
By Ten-Year Capital Strategy category, the biggest non-jail groups:
| Category (as labeled in the City's Ten-Year Capital Strategy) | Projects | Project budget |
|---|---|---|
| Traffic work in conjunction with highway reconstruction | 90 | $4.70 billion |
| Trunk and distribution water-main replacement | 74 | $3.44 billion |
| Primary street reconstruction | 113 | $3.24 billion |
| Utility relocation for sewer and water-main projects | 48 | $1.65 billion |
| Replacement or augmentation of existing sewer systems | 70 | $1.42 billion |
| Essential reconstruction of facilities | 117 | $1.30 billion |
| Miscellaneous energy efficiency and sustainability (largely resiliency) | 16 | $1.15 billion |
| Pedestrian ramp construction | 61 | $1.06 billion |
| Sidewalk reconstruction | 50 | $687 million |
| Court facilities | 23 | $648 million |
| Police facilities | 18 | $621 million |
| City-owned office space | 20 | $519 million |
| Neighborhood parks, playgrounds and ballfields | 15 | $510 million |
| Shelters for homeless individuals | 23 | $373 million |
| Green infrastructure | 9 | $331 million |
| Library replacement branches | 10 | $269 million |
Add up the nine street, sewer, water-main, ramp, sidewalk and green-infrastructure categories and you get roughly $16.7 billion — more than the jails, spread across about 520 projects instead of nine. That's the DDC market most of you will actually bid. Not the jails. This.
Where the work is: Queens, with or without the jail.
| Borough | Projects | Project budget | Of which: jails | Everything else |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Queens | 238 | $11.31 billion | $4.47 billion | $6.83 billion |
| Brooklyn | 212 | $8.77 billion | $3.35 billion | $5.42 billion |
| Manhattan | 168 | $8.23 billion | $4.32 billion | $3.91 billion |
| Bronx | 131 | $7.44 billion | $3.59 billion | $3.85 billion |
| Citywide | 143 | $5.44 billion | $0.43 billion | $5.01 billion |
| Staten Island | 98 | $2.29 billion | — | $2.29 billion |
Queens wins every cut: most projects, most non-jail dollars, and the biggest single sewer program in the city — the southeast Queens storm-sewer build-out keeps showing up in the top project lines (150th Street Spine at Bergen Basin, Laurelton, North Conduit Avenue, 146th Avenue). Brooklyn's second. Manhattan only looks big because of the jail; take it out and Manhattan and the Bronx are about even.
And "Citywide" isn't a place, it's a contract type. That's where the East Side Coastal Resiliency project sits ($1.64 billion, listed citywide), the Two Bridges resiliency project ($461 million), and DOT's borough-wide pedestrian-ramp and trench-restoration requirements contracts. If you're a mid-sized paving or concrete outfit looking for repeat DDC work, those requirements contracts are the best shot you've got.
What's actually moving toward bid. Project budget tells you how big the market is. Phase tells you when. As of May 2026:
| Phase | Projects | Project budget |
|---|---|---|
| Construction (under way) | 251 | $15.65 billion |
| Design | 201 | $6.60 billion |
| Construction procurement (out to bid or being awarded) | 95 | $3.73 billion |
| Close-out | 94 | $2.11 billion |
Those 95 projects in construction procurement are the closest thing DDC has to a public letting list — but "in procurement" is a phase, not a bid date. One of them, East Side Coastal Resiliency Area 1 at $1.64 billion, carries a stale 2021 phase-end date and is mostly built already, so the live pool is closer to 94 projects and $2.09 billion. By borough: Brooklyn 25 projects ($575 million), Manhattan 20 ($526 million), Queens 15 ($407 million), Bronx 12 ($237 million), Staten Island 5 ($50 million), plus 18 citywide contracts ($1.94 billion, almost all of it ESCR).
The biggest items in that pool:
| Project (FMS ID) | Sponsor | Borough | Project budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| 70 Mulberry Street reconstruction (70MULBREC) | DCAS | Manhattan | $198.4 million |
| Harper Street asphalt plant reconstruction (HWHARPER) | DOT | Queens | $137.7 million |
| New Tremont Park recreation center (P-1TREREC) | Parks | Bronx | $104.4 million |
| Gravesend Bay CSO green infrastructure, Phase 1 (GKOH15-01) | DEP | Brooklyn | $104.2 million |
| Delancey Street safety improvements (HWM2025) | DOT | Manhattan | $94.2 million |
| Trench restoration, Brooklyn (HWTRK1) | DOT | Brooklyn | $67.9 million |
| Coney Island beach operations HQ (P-2CIB1HQ) | Parks | Brooklyn | $60.9 million |
| Coney Island sewers and water main, Phase 4 (CONISPH04) | DEP | Brooklyn | $59.3 million |
| 80 Centre Street fire alarms and sprinklers (PW29380FC) | DCAS | Manhattan | $52.1 million |
| Queens Museum expansion, Phase II (PV291-QM2) | Cultural Affairs | Queens | $44.7 million |
Some of these have already moved from "procurement" to a result or an award since the May data cut. Delancey Street (HWM2025) shows on DDC's awarded-contracts list at $47,998,629.36 to Maspeth Supply Co. The Pamoja House facade job (HH112PJFC, $35.4 million budget) opened Aug. 13 with an apparent low bid of $18.67 million — apparent low, not an award; see the companion opportunity watch. And notice the gap in both cases: a project budget carries design, management and contingency, so the construction contract routinely comes in well under the budget line. Don't size your bid off the budget number.
Behind the procurement pool, 124 projects with $3.38 billion in budget are in design and scheduled to finish design between August 2026 and August 2027 — Queens 32 projects ($1.07 billion), Brooklyn 24 ($682 million), Manhattan 22 ($684 million), Bronx 21 ($514 million), citywide 16 ($250 million), Staten Island 9 ($176 million). Now, design completion is not a bid date. DDC's own procurement step usually follows by months. But it's the best public signal there is of what the 2027 letting calendar looks like.
One more caution on the counts, because it'll bite you if you take the tables literally. DDC's combined street-and-utility jobs carry two or three FMS IDs for one contract — Queens Boulevard Phase 1 is both HWQ1190A (DOT, $132 million) and QED-1042A (water main, $106 million); Flatiron Plaza is HWPLZ020M and MED644. So every project count in this piece overstates the number of contracts. Read the dollars, not the tally.
How DDC buys: three doors, not one. Which door a job goes through decides whether you can bid it at all.
Design-bid-build through PASSPort. Still the default for street, sewer, water-main and most building work. Competitive sealed bids, low responsive bidder, documents pulled from PASSPort by searching the EPIN. Every open DDC bid on our board this month is this type.
Design-build — one team, drawings and shovels both. The State's Public Works Investment Act let DDC and other city capital agencies use two-step design-build starting in 2020: a request for qualifications shortlists teams, then a best-value RFP picks one. The City said in February 2025 that 42 projects across DDC, NYCHA and H+H were using design-build — DDC's share was 13 projects plus the four jails — with a claimed $1.4 billion and 50 years of combined schedule savings. DDC's August 2025 design-build blueprint reported 12 awarded contracts worth more than $800 million across public buildings and infrastructure. The four jails are design-build. So is the Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center in Brooklyn ($145 million, listed as "(Design Built)" in the dashboard). If you're a trade contractor, a design-build package is a sub target — the prime is the shortlisted team, and you're selling to them.
CM-build and progressive design-build. A 2024 expansion of the state law let DDC use construction-manager-build and progressive design-build for certain project types. DDC said in March 2026 that five CM-build pilot projects are going at libraries and cultural institutions — 70 Mulberry Street in Chinatown is one of them. Under CM-build the construction manager gets picked on qualifications and then bids out the trade packages — so on library and cultural work, a specialty sub is bidding to a CM, not to the City.
Prequalified lists sit on top of all three. DDC runs project-specific and category PQLs through PASSPort, and only firms on the list get the solicitation. The NYC Ballet roof replacement on DDC's awarded list was a "Landmark PQL" job ($8.66 million to XBR Inc.). And here's the one to watch: DDC has a PQL application open right now for the 150th Street trunk sewer and outfall at Bergen Basin — a $150 million southeast Queens project that's still in design. That's the clearest "what's coming" signal on the board. The agency is building its bidder list three years ahead of the work. If you want that job, you're applying now, not in 2029.
Which trades are best positioned. This is our read of the category and project data above, not a DDC ranking.
Heavy civil, sewer and water-main contractors have the deepest DDC market there is: roughly $16.7 billion of budget in street, sewer, water-main, ramp and sidewalk categories, a steady run of DEP-sponsored sewer packages out of southeast Queens, Staten Island and Coney Island, and the borough-wide requirements contracts. Recent DDC bid tabs in this lane have drawn five to six bidders with spreads of 10 to 13 percent between low and second.
Paving, concrete and streetscape firms should watch the DOT-sponsored safety and Vision Zero packages — Southern Boulevard, Safe Routes to Schools Queens, Delancey, 4th Avenue Phase B ($149 million, in design), Mott Haven, Lower Grand Concourse — and the pedestrian-ramp requirements contracts, which DDC lets by borough pair at $25 million to $28 million each.
General building contractors have a smaller but wide market: courts ($648 million), police facilities ($621 million), shelters ($373 million), library branches ($269 million), cultural institutions and rec centers. This is where the three doors matter most. The big new buildings go design-build or CM-build; renovations, roofs, facades and systems replacements still go design-bid-build.
Mechanical and electrical contractors get a steady run of stand-alone HVAC, chiller, cooling-tower, fire-alarm and emergency-lighting packages — three of the seven open DDC bids on our board this month are exactly that.
Resiliency and marine contractors have East Side Coastal Resiliency, Two Bridges, Red Hook flood protection ($229 million) and the Bellevue flood wall ($90 million, design ending April 2027) — big, federally supported, and heavy on sheet pile, floodwall concrete and deployable barriers.
Special inspection, testing and surveying firms — especially City-certified M/WBEs — have a real niche. See the companion piece on DDC's M/WBE small-purchase door.
So here's the bottom line. DDC's $43 billion isn't a pipeline. It's the sum of other agencies' projects, almost 40 percent of it four jails that are already somebody else's contract. The market you can bid is the $27 billion non-jail book — and inside that, the $2.1 billion in procurement now and the $3.4 billion finishing design over the next year. Read the project budget to size the market, the phase to time it, and the PASSPort solicitation to decide whether you're in. Everything else is somebody else's money.