A much-needed runway rehabilitation project at the Santa Maria Public Airport will lead to temporary closures affecting aircraft including those involved in the firefighting efforts.

Work started Monday on the project to restore a 3,500-foot stretch of the primary runway — the segment where the most wear and tear occurred — in an approximately $5.8 million project by Granite Construction. 

Plans call for the work to be done Oct. 15, the day American Airlines will launch new air service between Santa Maria and Phoenix. 

The project to repair will prevent aircraft, including those involved in fighting wildland fires, from landing.

Airport officials say work will occur Mondays through Thursdays through Sept. 11 with one caveat: If needed to meet the schedule, crews can work Sept. 12 and 13.

“That’s not the ideal. That’s not what they want, but we want to provide that as an option so that we can meet our October 15th deadline,” airport General Manager Martin Pehl told the board of directors. 

Construction workers also will take off Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 1.

They crafted the schedule to accommodate the Allegiant flights between Santa Maria and Las Vegas.

“We did our best to build the schedule around what we need would happen,” he said. 

Once the initial phase is done and crews allow the asphalt to cure for three weeks, the next stage will take place at night and include the final work of installing grooves and paint on the pavement.

“The airport’s open, it’s just the (main) runway closed,” Pehl said. “The (air traffic control) tower will be open so we’ll have the benefit of having someone during tower hours that can communicate with pilots, have overwatch and do things safe and sound.”

Additionally, the crosswind runway will be remain open but can accommodate only smaller aircraft.

In addition to the new passenger air service starting Oct. 15, the work needs to be done in time for the Central Coast AirFest planned for Oct. 18-19, but aircraft typically arrive days beforehand.

“We don’t want this project to run into all those things,” Pehl said. 

Airport tenants including those involved with the U.S. Forest Service’s Santa Maria Air Tanker Base were notified about the repair project ahead of time. The runway section reportedly last received rehab work decades ago when typically the lifespan is 20 years. 

“You want your best piece of pavement to be your runway,” Pehl said.  

Coincidentally, the runway project started as the Gifford Fire’s containment topped 95%. 

But it made for some stressful times as airport officials, knowing the runway project’s start date, watched the fast-moving fire that heavily relied on aircraft.

Incident commanders remarked several times during community meetings about the valuable role the tanker base played in firefighting effort due to the short turnaround time between retardant drops.