Opening of new Reston fire station delayed to next year

The opening of a new fire station on Wiehle Avenue has been delayed again.

Ashley Hildebrandt, a spokesperson for the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, said Station 25 is looking at a potential move-in date in mid-January.

Communications representatives for the county were unable to answer what’s causing the delay and what firefighters will need to do to prepare for the new facility.

Sharon North, a spokesperson for the county’s Department of Public Works and Environmental Services, said in an email that the work remaining to be completed is a “typical punch list of items” and “nothing major.”

Demolition on the former station began in March 2020 for the approximately $15 million project that will double the size of Station 25.

The former station was 2 1/2 bays, designed in 1972, had “become undersized” and “inadequate critical infrastructure,” and lacked “support functions to meet the needs of the expanding department and the community it serves,” according to a description by the project’s architect.

Around a year ago, the department said the station could be ready by the summer of 2021.