Pickleball Coming To Mahwah Park In $238K Project

MAHWAH, NJ — America's fastest-growing sport will soon have a new place to be played in Mahwah, according to township officials.

Pickleball, often described as a cross between ping-pong and tennis, has seen a meteoric rise in popularity in recent years, and is now spreading to Continental Soldiers Park in Mahwah, thanks to the township.

"It's all the rage," Mahwah Township Engineer Mike Kelly said of the sport, which is getting up to four new courts at the park after approval of a $238,000 project award to D&L Paving Contractors.

The project, which will demolish the skate park allowing for installation of two pickleball courts and a convertible space for use as a tennis court or two additional pickleball courts, attracted five bidders, of whom D&L was the lowest.

At the township council's Feb. 23 meeting, a resolution to award the project was unanimously approved — at the aforementioned amount, which was $120,000 less than the engineer's estimate. Funded by a portion of Bergen County Open Space grant funding and the capital budget, the project is expected to be completed by June 9, 2023.

Project scope includes full-depth pavement replacement for a complex that offers a regulation tennis court, and pickleball courts with portable net systems, and chain-link fencing and other ancillary improvements, Kelly said.

D&L is a "fine contractor," he added, that has worked with the township on previous occasions.