The Department of Environmental Protection is carrying 371 capital projects with a combined project budget of $38.32 billion, per the City's Capital Projects Dashboard for the May 2026 reporting period. About $11.88 billion of that is already spent. And thirty of those projects — $5.14 billion, almost all of it the finished Croton plant — are completed, pending or cancelled and only sit in the total because nobody's closed them out yet. The book that's actually breathing is 341 projects and $33.18 billion.
Here's what makes DEP different from the last stop in this series. DDC's $43 billion book is other agencies' money. DEP's book is its own. DEP is the city's water and sewer utility and a direct construction owner: it holds the budget, writes the scope, and — for its treatment plants, tunnels, reservoirs, dams and pumping stations — runs the procurement itself through PASSPort. Now add the 142 DEP-sponsored projects worth $4.76 billion that DDC manages for it, plus small slices at EDC and DCAS, and DEP is paying for roughly $43.5 billion of active capital work. That's more than any other City agency.
“Do not add the two doors together and call it DEP's bid market. Same money, two procurements, two sets of front-end documents.”
This is the fifth stop in our agency series — the MTA's capital plan, the SCA's $21 billion, DDC's $43 billion book and NYCHA came before it, and DOT is running alongside — and the DEP installment leans on the DDC one, because the street-level sewer and water-main work most contractors picture when they hear “DEP” is a DDC solicitation with DEP's name in the sponsor field.
So the money story here is two questions. How much of that $38 billion is real near-term commitment rather than lifetime project budget? And which door does a given kind of job come through? Start with the first one. Three numbers, three different things. You'll hear all of them called “DEP's budget.” Keep them straight:
| The number | What it actually is | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| $38.32 billion | Total project budget across the 371 DEP-managed projects carried in the City's financial system (341 of them active, $33.18 billion). Lifetime project cost, not annual spending. Does NOT include the $4.76 billion of DEP-funded work DDC manages. | Capital Projects Dashboard, May 2026 reporting period |
| $20.32 billion | DEP's planned capital commitments for Fiscal 2026–2030 in OMB's May 2026 Executive plan, all funds: $4.48 billion (FY26), $5.08 billion (FY27), $3.35 billion (FY28), $4.35 billion (FY29), $3.06 billion (FY30). This one is organized by whose budget the money sits in, so it DOES include the sewer and water-main work DDC builds with DEP's money. A commitment is a plan to register a contract — a market signal, not a purchase order. (The January Preliminary plan, as the Council reported it in March, carried $20.17 billion with $4.97 billion in FY27.) | OMB, FY2027 Executive Budget Capital Commitment Plan, Vol. 1, May 2026 |
| $3.50 billion / $4.15 billion | What DEP itself is authorized to put under contract, by managing agency: $3.50 billion in Fiscal 2026 ($3.21 billion City funds, $286 million non-City) and $4.15 billion in Fiscal 2027 ($4.07 billion City, $76 million non-City). OMB's commitment targets for DEP are the same numbers — $3.50 billion for FY2026 and a preliminary $4.15 billion for FY2027 — so DEP, unlike DDC, carries no haircut between what it may commit and what it's expected to. For scale, DEP actually committed $2.50 billion in FY2024 and $3.22 billion in FY2025 on OMB's basis. | OMB, FY2027 Executive Budget Capital Commitment Plan, Vol. 1, May 2026 |
DEP puts it plainer than OMB does. The agency calls itself “the largest construction agency in the City, awarding more than $1 billion in contracts” a year for construction, construction-related services and engineering. That's money actually put under contract, and it's the number you should size your shop against.
Now, keep the chain straight, because every figure in this piece sits on one link of it. 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 the work gets billed. Let's say a pump station shows up on the plan at $90 million. That's a commitment — nobody's bought anything. When a firm wins it and the Comptroller stamps it, that's a contract. When the first pump ships and the first requisition clears — that's a check. Commitment, contract, award, check. Four different days, sometimes years apart, and we label every figure here as one of them.
Where the money went last year: one tunnel. OMB's FY2027 Executive plan carries DEP's actual commitments for the last four fiscal years by budget category (all funds, $ millions):
| Category | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water pollution control (treatment plants, CSO) | 777 | 1,429 | 1,473 | 615 |
| Water supply (upstate tunnels, aqueducts) | 62 | 38 | 434 | 1,952 |
| Water mains, sources and treatment | 197 | 326 | 350 | 371 |
| Sewers | 543 | 480 | 234 | 205 |
| Equipment | 30 | 130 | 10 | 79 |
| Total | 1,609 | 2,403 | 2,501 | 3,222 |
FY2025 was DEP's biggest commitment year in this window, and more than 60 percent of it landed in one category. Look at the water-supply line: $434 million to $1.95 billion in a year. The dashboard's schedule row for the Kensico-Eastview Connection Tunnel's tunnel-and-shaft package (KEC-1) shows construction starting March 3, 2025 — inside FY2025 — which lines up with that jump. Strip it out and DEP's run-rate is closer to $1.3 billion to $2 billion a year, with treatment plants the steadiest lane.
And look at the sewers line: $543 million in FY2022 down to $205 million in FY2025. That's not sewer work disappearing. Most of DEP's street-level sewer and water-main construction is committed through DDC's budget lines, not DEP's. Which is the whole point of this piece.
Two doors: what DEP buys itself, and what DDC buys for it.
Door one — DEP, through PASSPort. Treatment plants (DEP calls them Water Resource Recovery Facilities, WRRFs), pumping stations, the CSO retention and storage program, the upstate water-supply system (dams, aqueducts, the Kensico and Hillview works, City Tunnel No. 3), green-infrastructure construction packages, catch-basin replacement, lead-service-line replacement and DEP's own job-order contracts. DEP's Bureau of Engineering Design and Construction (BEDC) is the contracting bureau; solicitations post to PASSPort and the City Record under DEP's agency number, 826.
Door two — DDC, with DEP's money. Sewer and water-main replacement in the street, utility relocation for those projects, the southeast Queens storm-sewer build-out, the Gravesend Bay green-infrastructure phases, the Bluebelt program, and anything bundled with a DOT street reconstruction. These carry DEP as sponsor and DDC as manager. In the May 2026 dashboard that's 142 projects and $4.76 billion (one row per FMS project; our DDC profile reports the same figure). Twenty of them, $500 million, are completed, on hold, pending or cancelled. Grouped by Ten-Year Capital Strategy category:
| DDC-managed, DEP-sponsored (May 2026) | Projects | Project budget |
|---|---|---|
| Trunk and distribution water-main replacement | 27 | $1.37 billion |
| Replacement or augmentation of existing sewers | 37 | $1.01 billion |
| Utility relocation for sewer and water-main projects | 21 | $966 million |
| Green infrastructure (Gravesend Bay CSO phases) | 9 | $331 million |
| Street and traffic work tied to utility jobs | 11 | $374 million |
| Water-supply augmentation, Bluebelt, Croton landscaping, all other | 37 | $719 million |
By borough, that DDC-delivered DEP work is Queens $1.94 billion (40 projects), Brooklyn $1.13 billion (33), Staten Island $566 million (21), Bronx $473 million (14), citywide $362 million (27), Manhattan $289 million (7).
Here's the rule, and it's worth taping to the wall: do not add the two doors together and call it DEP's bid market. A sewer contractor bids door two on DDC's PASSPort solicitations (EPIN prefix 850), sees a DDC estimate and a DDC bid opening. A process-mechanical or electrical contractor bids door one on DEP's (prefix 826). Same money, two procurements, two sets of front-end documents. Everything DEP-managed in the rest of this piece is door one only.
Whose plant is it? The DEP-managed book by program. By Ten-Year Capital Strategy category, DEP's own $38.32 billion breaks down like this (one row per FMS project, total project budget, May 2026):
| Category (as the Ten-Year Capital Strategy labels it) | Projects | Project budget | Spent to date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plant upgrading and reconstruction (the 14 WRRFs and pump stations) | 141 | $10.83 billion | $2.08 billion |
| Water quality mandates (CSO tunnels, retention tanks, disinfection) | 16 | $7.41 billion | $1.28 billion |
| Croton filter project (complete) | 5 | $2.90 billion | $2.85 billion |
| Kensico-City tunnel (Kensico-Eastview connection) | 1 | $2.65 billion | $282 million |
| Water quality preservation (upstate aqueducts, chambers, shops) | 57 | $2.52 billion | $336 million |
| Plant component stabilization | 7 | $1.83 billion | $1.79 billion |
| Dam safety program (Ashokan, Gilboa, Merriman) | 4 | $1.83 billion | $591 million |
| Water for the Future (Delaware Aqueduct bypass, largely complete) | 6 | $1.58 billion | $1.36 billion |
| City Tunnel No. 3, Stage 2 | 3 | $1.41 billion | $508 million |
| City Tunnel No. 3, Stage 1 (Hillview chambers) | 1 | $1.32 billion | $220 million |
| Replacement or augmentation of existing sewers (catch basins, emergency work) | 20 | $1.28 billion | $0 |
| Utility relocation for sewer and water-main projects | 2 | $516 million | $259 million |
| Trunk and distribution main replacement | 19 | $483 million | $18 million |
| Management information systems | 2 | $230 million | $1 million |
| Replacement of chronically failing components | 3 | $220 million | $87 million |
| Bluebelt program | 7 | $181 million | $15 million |
| Tibbetts Brook daylighting (listed under land acquisition / green infrastructure) | 1 | $161 million | $2 million |
| Green infrastructure program | 14 | $96 million | $15 million |
| All other (water-supply augmentation, FAD, facilities, BNR, consent decree, parks, misc.) | 62 | $0.89 billion | $0.18 billion |
Two things jump out. First, treatment plants and CSO work are $18.2 billion, nearly half the book, and that's the part DEP procures itself, package by package. Second, about $6.3 billion is already built or close to it — Croton, the Delaware Aqueduct bypass, the stabilization program — and it's only in the total because the projects haven't formally closed. The live DEP-managed market is closer to $32 billion.
The eight largest DEP-managed projects by budget:
| Project (FMS ID) | Borough | Phase (May 2026) | Project budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newtown Creek CSO storage tunnel (CS-NC-CST) | Queens/Brooklyn | Design | $3.45 billion |
| Croton filtration plant (HED-545) | Bronx | Completed | $2.86 billion |
| Kensico-Eastview connection tunnel (KENS-EAST) | Westchester, listed citywide | Tunnel in construction; buildings and site packages in procurement | $2.65 billion |
| Gowanus CSO retention facilities, Superfund site (CS-GC-SFS) | Brooklyn | Excavation in construction; structures package in procurement | $1.86 billion |
| Hillview Reservoir chamber modifications (C519) | Yonkers, listed citywide | Chemical-addition facilities (HVR-210) in construction since Aug. 2024; flow-control improvements (HVR-230) in design | $1.32 billion |
| City Tunnel No. 3 Stage 2, Brooklyn/Queens leg (C540) | Queens | Shafts in construction; equipment package in procurement | $1.24 billion |
| Ashokan Reservoir / Olive Bridge Dam outlets (CAT-213) | Ulster County, listed citywide | Design; the headworks mechanical package (CAT-213FAC-M) opened bids Aug. 18, 2026 — see the opportunity watch | $1.22 billion |
| Delaware-Rondout parallel tunnel (DEP-DRA) | Citywide | Close-out | $1.19 billion |
Where the work is: “citywide” means upstate.
| Borough (as labeled) | Projects | Project budget | Spent to date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Citywide | 140 | $14.50 billion | $3.55 billion |
| Queens | 64 | $8.05 billion | $1.76 billion |
| Bronx | 43 | $5.17 billion | $3.52 billion |
| Brooklyn | 44 | $5.04 billion | $1.56 billion |
| Manhattan | 40 | $3.50 billion | $1.12 billion |
| Staten Island | 34 | $2.05 billion | $370 million |
| No borough label | 6 | $0.2 million | — |
For DEP, “Citywide” is mostly a polite word for Westchester, Putnam, Ulster, Delaware and Schoharie counties: the Kensico tunnel, Hillview, the Ashokan and Gilboa dam programs, the Catskill and Delaware aqueduct chambers, and the upstate WRRFs. If you only bid the five boroughs, you're walking past $14.5 billion of DEP's book. The upstate work is public work under the same prevailing-wage regime, bought through the same PASSPort door, and in the 24-month lookahead it shows up as dam refacing, bridge painting, chamber rehab and valve replacement — jobs in the $1 million to $100 million range, not only megaprojects.
Within the boroughs, Queens leads because the Newtown Creek tunnel and City Tunnel No. 3 Stage 2 are both booked there; Bowery Bay, Tallman Island, Jamaica and the Howard Beach pump station add the plant work. The Bronx has spent the most ($3.52 billion of $5.17 billion) because Croton is done; what's left is Hunts Point ($403 million digester replacement in construction, $325 million sludge handling finishing design), the Hutchinson River CSO disinfection facility ($245 million) and the Conner Street pump station ($121 million). Brooklyn is Gowanus plus Owls Head — four Owls Head packages totaling more than $800 million are in procurement or finishing design — plus Paerdegat and Avenue U pump stations, 26th Ward, Red Hook and the Newtown Creek plant. Manhattan is North River ($596 million structural, $176 million power distribution) and Wards Island ($233 million power distribution). Staten Island is Oakwood Beach, Port Richmond, New Clove and the Eltingville and Richmond Avenue pump stations.
What's actually moving toward bid. Project budget tells you the size of the market. Phase tells you the timing. As of May 2026, DEP's active book sat at:
| Phase (May 2026) | Projects | Project budget | Spent to date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design | 72 | $10.54 billion | $523 million |
| Construction procurement (out to bid or being awarded) | 36 | $6.50 billion | $1.23 billion |
| Construction (under way) | 65 | $4.27 billion | $2.21 billion |
| Pre-design | 55 | $3.61 billion | $522 million |
| Partner-managed (DEP-funded, delivered by another agency or entity) | 47 | $2.89 billion | $355 million |
| Holding code (placeholder lines, incl. $984 million “agency proposed outyear projects”) | 24 | $1.92 billion | $94 million |
| Job order contract | 29 | $1.81 billion | $498 million |
| Close-out | 13 | $1.64 billion | $1.43 billion |
| Completed | 18 | $5.12 billion | $5.01 billion |
| Pending / cancelled | 12 | $26 million | $10 million |
That $6.50 billion “in procurement” is not a $6.50 billion bid list. DEP delivers its megaprojects as a string of contract packages under one project budget, and the dashboard carries the whole budget against whichever package happens to be out. Three projects — Kensico-Eastview ($2.65 billion; the KEC-3 buildings and KEC-6 shoreline packages are in procurement while the tunnel itself is under construction, and the KEC-7 wetland-mitigation package, still “in procurement” in the May data, was awarded June 30 for $12.7 million), Gowanus ($1.86 billion; the CP3 above-grade structures and conveyance package, procurement started May 15, 2026) and City Tunnel No. 3 Stage 2 ($1.24 billion; the C547B shaft-equipment package, on our board due Sept. 30) — account for $5.75 billion of it. Take them out and the live DEP procurement pool is about $745 million across 33 projects. That's the bid market right now.
The largest of those 33, with DEP's own published range and quarter from its April 2026 24-month lookahead where the contract appears there:
| Project (FMS ID) | Borough | Project budget | DEP's stated range and bid quarter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reconstruction of final tanks, Owls Head WRRF (OH-88-L) | Brooklyn | $399.0 million | Bid as 82626B0029-BEDC-OH-88, PQL, due March 19, 2026 per City Record extension notice of Jan. 7, 2026 |
| Main sewage pumps and piping, Owls Head WRRF (OH-112-L) | Brooklyn | $250.4 million | $100M–$500M, Q4 2026 |
| Power distribution reconstruction, Wards Island WRRF (WI-292-L) | Manhattan | $233.2 million | Not on the April lookahead |
| Tibbetts Brook daylighting / Van Cortlandt Lake (GI-TIBBET) | Bronx | $161.2 million | $165M–$170M, Q4 2026 |
| In-city dam rehabilitation, Silver Lake and Central Park (RESAMSAF) | Staten Island / Manhattan | $128.4 million | Two packages, both in procurement since late 2024 / late 2025 |
| Paerdegat pumping station reconstruction (PS-318) | Brooklyn | $90.5 million | $75M–$100M, Q1 2027 |
| Headworks, Oakwood Beach WRRF (OB-135-L) | Staten Island | $88.9 million | Bids opened March 24, 2026 — see the opportunity watch |
| Main substation reconstruction, Owls Head WRRF (OH-95-L) | Brooklyn | $88.5 million | Not on the April lookahead |
| New Clove pump station equipment (NCMCCSG) | Staten Island | $71.7 million | $50M–$100M, Q1 2027 |
| Wards Island main sewage pump valves and actuators (WI-323-L) | Manhattan | $60.8 million | $25M–$50M, Q3 2026 |
| Avenue U pumping station reconstruction (PS-316) | Brooklyn | $56.9 million | Not on the April lookahead |
| Gilboa Dam high-level outlet (CAT-475) | Schoharie County | $54.0 million | $25M–$50M, Q4 2027 |
| Richmond Avenue pumping station (PS-323) | Staten Island | $44.3 million | Not on the April lookahead |
| 26th Ward WRRF switchgear replacement (26W-166-L) | Brooklyn | $22.7 million | $10M–$20M, Q4 2026 |
| Second gas holder, Newtown Creek WRRF (NC-179) | Brooklyn | $21.0 million | $25M–$50M, Q2 2027 |
One warning before you start counting that table like a bid calendar. A project budget has design, construction management and contingency baked in, so the construction contract routinely comes in well under the budget line. Look at it: Oakwood Beach headworks carries an $88.9 million budget and drew a $45.6 million apparent low bid. The budget line is the ceiling of the whole project. Your contract is a piece of it.
Behind the procurement pool, 25 DEP-managed projects with $6.40 billion in budget are in design and forecast to finish design between August 2026 and August 2027. Two of them are the Newtown Creek tunnel ($3.45 billion, design forecast to end Aug. 15, 2026) and Hillview's flow-control improvements ($1.32 billion, Nov. 23, 2026). The other 23 total $1.63 billion, and DEP's lookahead already puts a bid quarter next to most of them:
| Project (FMS ID) | Borough | Project budget | Design ends (forecast) | DEP lookahead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hunts Point sludge handling / thickening (HP-239-L) | Bronx | $324.9 million | Aug. 2026 | $100M–$500M, Q2 2027 |
| Hutchinson River CSO disinfection facility (CSO-HR-DF) | Bronx | $244.8 million | Sept. 2026 | $100M–$500M, Q4 2026 |
| North River WRRF power distribution (NR-115-L) | Manhattan | $175.5 million | Oct. 2026 | $100M–$500M, Q4 2026 |
| Bowery Bay emergency generators / substation (BB-220-L) | Queens | $124.3 million | April 2027 | $100M–$500M, Q3 2027 |
| Conner Street pumping station, 11 to 20 MGD (PS-290) | Bronx | $121.2 million | Oct. 2026 | $100M–$500M, Q4 2026 |
| Red Hook WRRF main sewage pump system (RH-83) | Brooklyn | $112.3 million | May 2027 | $100M–$500M, Q3 2027 |
| Howard Beach pumping station reconstruction (PS-293) | Queens | $108.0 million | Aug. 2026 | $50M–$100M, Q2 2027 (CM services RFP open now — see the watch) |
| Eltingville pumping station (PS-287) | Staten Island | $81.9 million | Nov. 2026 | $100M–$500M, Q1 2027 |
| Gravity belt thickeners, Owls Head WRRF (OH-123) | Brooklyn | $59.2 million | March 2027 | $100M–$500M, Q1 2027 |
| Cross River and Croton Falls dam refacing (CRO-536) | Westchester/Putnam | $58.7 million | Aug. 2026 | $50M–$100M, Q2 2027 |
| Gravity belt thickeners, Newtown Creek WRRF (NC-173) | Brooklyn | $36.5 million | Dec. 2026 | — |
| Borden Avenue pump station expansion (CS-NC-BAP) | Queens | $31.7 million | Aug. 2027 | — |
| 19th Street pumping station (PS-289) | Manhattan | $28.1 million | June 2027 | — |
| Catskill Aqueduct Wallkill blow-off chamber (CAT-523) | Ulster County | $25.4 million | Feb. 2027 | $25M–$50M, Q3 2027 |
| Hollers pumping station (PS-297) | Bronx | $24.0 million | Aug. 2027 | Force main $5M–$10M, Q1 2027 |
Now, design completion is not a bid date. But when DEP's own lookahead puts a quarter next to it, that's the best public signal the agency gives — and DEP is the only owner in this series that publishes one at all.
The lookahead itself — 100 lines, published April 3, 2026 — is the document to read. Beyond the plant packages above it lists nine green-street median projects at $1 million to $5 million each (Q2 2027), four green-infrastructure onsite construction contracts at $15 million to $20 million each (Q4 2026), four borough catch-basin replacement contracts (Q1 2027), lead-service-line replacement in Brooklyn and the Bronx at $10 million to $20 million each (Q1 2027), and eleven job-order contracts for general, electrical, plumbing and HVAC work across its in-city and upstate regions. Those JOCs, catch-basin and green-infrastructure contracts are where a mid-sized shop gets its first DEP contract.
What got awarded, and what only got announced. Here's the record on the marquee projects, checked against DEP's own publication or the City Record — and we're careful with the word “award,” because a public-comment notice and an award notice are two different pieces of paper.
Owls Head main pump system (OH-812). The City Record of Aug. 3, 2026 carries DEP's award of a construction-related services contract to Hazen & Sawyer for $72,616,879 covering reconstruction of the main sewage pump system, rehabilitation of the final settling and aeration tanks and replacement of the process-air blowers. That's the engineering/CM side. The construction packages (OH-88, OH-112, OH-95, OH-123) are the ones in the procurement and design tables above.
Hillview Reservoir. The City Record of March 26, 2026 published a public-comment notice on a proposed DEP contract to the Hazen/Thornton Tomasetti JV for $124,690,582.49 — HVR-400-DES, preliminary design and design services for cast-in-place concrete tanks, a 2,830-day term by competitive sealed proposal. A public-comment notice comes before registration. It is not an award, and as of Aug. 22 the City Record carries no award notice for it. Separately, DEP published the CM-services RFP for the HVR-200 flow-control improvements in the City Record on Aug. 10, 2026 (82627P0001, proposals due Sept. 9 at 4 p.m.; on our board), and the lookahead puts the HVR-230 flow-control construction package at $100 million to $500 million in Q1 2027. Design contract, then CM, then construction — that's how a DEP package moves, and Hillview is running all three at once.
Newtown Creek CSO storage tunnel. DEP issued the Final Environmental Impact Statement in February 2026. The City Record of July 21, 2026 carries DEP's award of the construction-management contract (CSO-NC-CM) to Newtown Creek CSO Partners, a joint venture of AECOM, Parsons and EPC Consultants, for $221,792,412 by competitive sealed proposal (E-PIN 82626P0004002). DEP's public-comment notice on the proposed contract ran April 30, 2026, at a maximum value of $221,792,411.79 and a 5,843-day term — that's 16 years, which is the real schedule signal for the job. The JV had announced its selection on March 16; the City Record now makes it an agency record. The first construction package, CP-1 site preparation, is on DEP's lookahead at $50 million to $100 million for Q1 2027; the Council's March report carries $1.6 billion for the tunnel in the five-year plan.
Gowanus. The CSO retention facilities are two sites, Owls Head (OH-007) and Red Hook (RH-034). Owls Head CP1 (demolition) is in close-out, CP2 (excavation and foundation) is in construction through July 2027, and CP3 (above-grade structures and conveyance for the 4-million-gallon tank) entered procurement May 15, 2026 — $100 million to $500 million, Q4 2026 on the lookahead. The CM side of CP3 is moving ahead of the construction side: the City Record of July 16, 2026 carries DEP's award of CM services for the Red Hook superstructure (CSO-GC-SFS-CM-RH3-CP3) to the CDM Smith–Mott MacDonald joint venture for $29,618,440 (PIN 82626P0005001), and the Owls Head superstructure CM RFP (82626P0027) was published June 10 with proposals due July 14 — closed, not yet awarded. The Council report carries $620.2 million for Gowanus over five years.
Bergen Basin. Door two. The 150th Street trunk sewer and outfall (SE-885, $153.6 million, in design) is a DEP-sponsored, DDC-managed job; DDC has a prequalified-list application open for it (RFI-001547).
Port Richmond. Nothing large is in procurement. The lookahead lists PR-156, HVAC units and ventilation-fan rehabilitation at the Port Richmond WRRF, $5 million to $10 million, Q4 2026.
Kensico-Eastview. The tunnel package (KEC-1) has been in construction since March 2025 with a forecast end of May 2031; KEC-2 site preparation since March 2024. KEC-3 (buildings) and KEC-6 (shoreline stabilization) are in procurement; KEC-7 (wetland mitigation) was awarded June 30, 2026 to J. D'Annunzio & Sons of South Plainfield, N.J., for $12,667,000 by competitive sealed bid from a prequalified list (PIN 82626B0030001), per the City Record. The lookahead lists the KEC-3 screen-chamber and tunnel start-up package at more than $500 million for Q2 2027. The Council report carries $1.1 billion for the project over five years, $460.5 million of it in FY2027.
Which trades are sitting best? Straight up: this is our read of the category, phase and lookahead data above, not a DEP ranking.
Process-mechanical and pump contractors have the deepest DEP lane there is: $10.8 billion of plant budget, with main-sewage-pump reconstructions at Owls Head, Red Hook and Wards Island, pump-station rebuilds at Paerdegat, Avenue U, Richmond Avenue, Howard Beach, Eltingville, Conner Street, Hollers and 19th Street, and thickener, grit, screen and blower packages at nearly every WRRF. Oakwood Beach's headworks drew six bids in March; its transformer package drew twelve last November.
Electrical and switchgear contractors have a run of stand-alone power-distribution jobs you won't find at any other owner: Wards Island ($233 million), North River ($176 million), Bowery Bay ($124 million), Owls Head substation ($88 million), 26th Ward switchgear ($23 million), Hunts Point generator controls, plus electrical JOCs in every DEP region.
Heavy civil and tunnel contractors have Kensico, the Newtown Creek tunnel, City Tunnel No. 3's remaining shafts and the Hillview chambers — a $9 billion-plus program, but it gets delivered in a handful of packages to firms with deep-rock tunnel experience and the bonding to match. For everybody else, those are subcontracting markets.
Concrete, dam and marine contractors have the upstate dam-safety program ($1.83 billion: Ashokan headworks, Gilboa's high-level outlet, Merriman spillway, Cross River and Croton Falls refacing) and the in-city dam rehab at Silver Lake and Central Park. The Ashokan headworks mechanical package (CAT-213FAC-M) opened Aug. 18 with four bids — PJS/Welkin JV apparent low at $152.7 million against DEP's $167.6 million engineer's estimate, then ECCO III, Jett Industries and SPC Construction. That's the size of check this program writes.
Sewer and water-main contractors should read the DDC profile, not this one. DEP's own door carries the catch-basin contracts, emergency sewer requirements, lead-service-line replacement and the Bluebelt program; the trunk sewers and water mains are DDC's PASSPort solicitations.
Landscape, site and green-infrastructure firms have DEP's most repeatable small-contract stream: four $15 million to $20 million onsite GI construction contracts, nine green-street medians, Tibbetts Brook daylighting, and Bluebelt work on Staten Island and in southeast Queens.
HVAC, painting, diving and specialty maintenance firms show up all through the lookahead at $1 million to $10 million — bridge painting at Croton Lake and Schoharie, propane system rehab, underwater inspection across nine counties, HVAC JOCs.
Bottom line. DEP's headline number is real and it's the agency's own, but it's lifetime budget, a third of it upstate and a sixth of it already built. The usable DEP market for a bidding contractor is the $745 million now in procurement outside the three megaprojects, the $1.6 billion finishing design over the next year, and a 100-line lookahead that says which quarter each one is coming.
So read the project budget to size the market. Read the phase and the lookahead to time it. And read the PASSPort solicitation — under agency 826 for DEP's own work, 850 for the sewer and water-main work DDC buys with DEP's money — to decide whether to bid. Because the same dollar only ever comes through one of those doors, and you need to be standing at the right one. The registration steps, the M/WBE doors and the live DEP watch list as of Aug. 22 run alongside this piece.