Hook Road tennis courts reopen after renovation

Crews appear to have aced the overhaul of Hook Road’s tennis courts, which are once again available for use.

Reston Association finished replacing the Hook Road courts with completely new asphalt court surfaces and coloring earlier this month.

The renovation also involved installing new fencing, drainage, access improvements, and energy-efficient LED lighting, which will be operational by this coming Friday (Aug. 20), according to RA’s capital projects webpage.

After closing for construction starting in March, the four courts opened back up Friday evening (Aug. 13). By Saturday morning, community members were already taking advantage of the refurbished facilities: a game unfolded on one court, while an instructor delivered a tennis lesson on another.

“They’re beautiful, they’re flat, and they play well,” one of the players, Reston resident George Jastrzebski, said of the new courts.

The overhaul of the tennis courts on Fairway Drive ends a years-long journey.

The project was part of a larger upgrade of the Hook Road Recreational Area that RA started working on in 2016. Other projects identified there in a conceptual master plan include improvements to the baseball fields and pathways.

Crews used heavy machinery to grind up the former courts, which were built in the mid-1970s. Crews mixed in cement then laid down the new courts.

Typically for tennis court renovations, Reston Association layers gravel and asphalt on top of the existing surface, but three layers had already accumulated on the Hook Road courts, so they decided to do more extensive renovations, RA Director of Capital Projects Chris Schumaker said in a Reston Today video in late March.

“It will be a much stronger base than prior ones,” Schumaker said in the video. “It should last significantly longer than prior court renovations. We’re usually expecting about 30 or 40 years out of this.”

He also said the project has the benefit of not sending the asphalt into a landfill.

RA has 52 tennis courts, half of which are lighted and eight of which are clay courts, according to its website. A pass is required to use the private courts.

Jastrzebski has played at the Hook Road courts “on and off” but said on Saturday that he might try to use the courts more now that they’re renovated.