The latest round of New York State Water and Sewer funding is resulting in a broad portfolio of municipal construction work that will go to contract in early 2026, as projects across the state move from planning and design through the bid preparation and early execution phases.
More than $453 million awarded at the end of last year through programs administered by the New York State Environmental Facilities Corp. they are supporting wastewater treatment improvements, drinking water reliability projects, and sewer system expansions in various regions. Although the awards were announced months ago, their impact on construction is only becoming apparent as owners move projects into procurement and field execution.
In announcing the funding, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said the state aims to support communities to complete long-overdue infrastructure projects without burdening taxpayers with additional costs.
“New Yorkers should not be burdened by rising water bills and outdated systems,” Hochul said, adding that the awards are intended to allow local governments to move forward with essential projects without imposing “unsustainable costs on residents and businesses.”
In the Hudson Valley and Lower Upstate corridor, several major wastewater treatment and transportation projects are advancing through environmental review or late design, positioning them for bid release this year. In many cases, state grants closed funding gaps that had delayed projects or restricted scope as construction costs rose. With funding secured, municipalities are now pushing toward contracting to stabilize prices and secure labor.
ENR grouped New York’s water and sewer awards into four regions to analyze how state-funded projects move from funding to procurement and early construction by 2026. Click on each map for more details.
In all regions, owners are dividing work into phased or discipline-specific bid packages to manage procurement risk, particularly for projects at active treatment facilities. Several municipalities are expected to release tender packages in clusters until mid-2026 rather than evenly throughout the year, increasing competition during peak procurement periods.
On Long Island, the current award list is dominated by drinking water treatment projects targeting emerging contaminants such as 1,4-dioxane and PFAS. These projects typically generate team-driven scopes that can move efficiently from bid to construction once designs are finalized. While New York City is not among the recipients of this round of funding, its ongoing capital programs continue to define the state’s largest and most complex water and wastewater construction market.
Western and Northern New York represent the largest geographic portion of the funded work, which includes treatment plant improvements, regional sewer expansions and system rehabilitation projects.
Several of the largest awards in this region are linked to multi-phase projects that are expected to generate successive bid packages over several construction seasons, providing sustained work rather than one-off contracts.
In the Capital Region and Mohawk Valley, funding supports treatment plant modernization and corridor-scale transmission work along the Mohawk River, with several awards tied to multiphase capital programs rather than stand-alone repairs.
Albany County Executive Daniel P. McCoy said the county’s sewer infrastructure has been operating “beyond its original design capacity” and state funding will allow long-planned upgrades to move forward, making the system “safer, more resilient and ready to meet current and future environmental standards.”
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State environmental officials have framed the awards as a mechanism to speed implementation rather than lengthen planning timelines. New York Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Amanda Lefton said the funding will support “dozens of critically important infrastructure projects” across the state, improving water quality while providing long-term environmental and economic benefits.
In all regions, the majority of construction contracts remain unawarded. Design services are typically secured prior to state funding approvals, and many projects are only now lining up final designs, permitting and procurement documents. Owners are increasingly focused on the timing and packaging of deals as they balance delivery pressure with remaining cost uncertainty.
Taken together, the awards point to a steady statewide cadence of water and wastewater construction entering the market by 2026 rather than a single spike. The previous ENR regional pop-ups are not intended as a comprehensive list of projects, but rather as an execution-focused snapshot of where state funding translates into near-term construction activity.
For contractors, the relevance lies less in the headline funding total than in how projects are distributed by region, size and readiness for execution, factors that will shape bidding strategies and backlog planning for the year.
