NYSDOT’s Annsville Circle Project Earns Recognition From Multiple Industry Groups
By JOHN JORDAN
NEW YORK—Motorists, businesses and members of the New York Army National Guard at Camp Smith in Cortlandt Manor along U.S. Route 6/State Route 202 must have breathed a sigh of relief by not having to wade through floodwaters or cope with road closures after the heavy rainstorms that swept through the region from July 28 to July 30.
For decades, a half mile section of U.S. Route 6/State Route 202 at Annsville Circle flooded 10 to 15 times a year after heavy rains or during high tides. However, a $25 million NYSDOT flood mitigation project, performed by ECCO III Enterprises Inc. of Yonkers and completed in February, has changed that.
The flood mitigation project has earned NYSDOT and its project team accolades from the American Society of Civil Engineers Metropolitan Section and AASHTO (the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials).
Using lightweight fill material manufactured from recycled glass, the project elevated the highway at Annsville Circle by four feet and raised other sections of the roadway in the vicinity by as much as seven feet. It was one of the first NYSDOT projects to use foamed glass fill, an environmentally friendly, lightweight material. Use of the product also helped shorten the construction schedule by as much as one year, NYSDOT officials said.
Geosynthetic reinforced soil technology, which utilizes fabrics, grids and meshes to strengthen and stabilize soil, was also used to accelerate construction and minimize lane closures and other traffic impacts.
Additional improvements include LED street lighting near the roundabout to enhance visibility, pedestrian crosswalks and a shared use path connecting Paddlesports Park with the Jan Peeck Bridge over Annsville Creek.
Nearby, Ben Ciccone Inc. of Poughkeepsie completed an emergency bridge project adjacent to Camp Smith. A future project, expected to be let in 2027, will raise the elevation of the final section of U.S. Route 6/State Route 202 adjacent to Camp Smith. NYSDOT Regional Director Julianne Fuda, P.E., said the bridge replacement was designed to require only minimal work when the future roadway elevation project is undertaken.
When the Annsville Circle project was completed, New York State Department of Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez said, “We have seen the real impacts of our changing climate across the state of New York, which is why New York State DOT is using every tool in our arsenal to harden our infrastructure and make it more resilient to withstand the extreme weather we know we will continue to face in the coming decades. With this project at Annsville Circle, DOT utilized its engineering prowess and state of the art materials to elevate this important highway and give Hudson Valley travelers a road they can depend on in all kinds of weather.”
On June 17, members of the Annsville Circle project team, including NYSDOT Region 8 Director Fuda, traveled to Queens to attend the ASCE Metropolitan Section’s 59th Annual Awards Dinner. The Annsville Circle project received ASCE’s 2026 Environmental and Water Resources Project of the Year Award. Along with NYSDOT, other members of the project team honored by ASCE included ECCO III Enterprises, contractor; North Country Garden Center, contractor; Creighton Manning, designer; Azar Design Co. Inc., designer; and HDR Inc., construction inspector.
Regional Director Fuda called the ASCE award “a great accomplishment and a great way to celebrate not only our DOT engineering and construction staff, but also the consultants and contractors who built the project. It’s nice to be recognized with an award among our peers in the industry that really showcases a successful project in the Hudson Valley.”
The Annsville Circle project has also received a regional award from AASHTO as part of its America’s Transportation Awards competition for Best Use of Technology and Innovation.
Published: August 11, 2026.