Air Force Staff Sgt. Kendall Turner works with an incinerator at North Field, Tinian, Feb. 2, 2025. (Manasseh Demissie/U.S. Air Force)

Engineers are on track to finish clearing vegetation from an airfield on Tinian by May, paving the way for the restoration of at least two of its four World War II-era runways, according to the Air Force.

Airmen from the 356th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Group at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, are nearing completion of the clearing work at Tinian’s North Field, group commander Col. Peter Joo said by phone Monday.

Between 15 and 30 airmen have been working on the island, a U.S. territory 118 miles north of Guam, at any given time over the past year, using bulldozers, excavators, loaders and dump trucks to remove overgrown vegetation, he said.

Senior Airman Elvin Dom uses a grader in preparation for asphalt paving at North Field, Tinian, Feb. 2, 2025. (Manasseh Demissie/U.S. Air Force)

The work began in January 2024 and should wrap up by May, though officials are seeking approval for an additional six to nine months of vegetation removal to provide more wingtip clearance for aircraft once repaving begins, 1st Lt. Ariana Wilkinson, a 36th Wing spokeswoman, said in an email Tuesday.

The project is part of a broader U.S. military effort to disperse forces across the Indo-Pacific, anticipating potential missile attacks on established bases in a conflict involving China over Taiwan or the South China Sea. To sustain operations across the region, the Air Force has been renovating World War II-era airfields from Micronesia to the Philippines.

North Field, which in 1945 included four 8,500-foot runways, was the launch site for B-29 Superfortress bombers targeting Japan. Visitors to Tinian can still see pits where the atomic bombs Little Boy and Fat Man were loaded onto B-29s bound for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The airfield was completely overgrown before engineers started work, Joo said.

“There were full-grown ironwood trees and lots of scrub,” he said. “Lack of maintenance and care over the decades means most of the airfield is in a very poor state from an engineering perspective.”

Of the four runways, only Runway Baker remains serviceable, providing a basic landing strip for C-130 aircraft, Joo said.

“The ultimate plan is to rebuild major portions of the airfield to support modern aircraft,” he said.

While all four runways have been cleared, only two are set to be repaved so far, Joo said. Engineers are conducting ground analysis to assess the materials used by Navy Seabees when the airfield was built in the 1940s.

The work, which includes incinerating vegetation, is complicated by logistical challenges in moving personnel and equipment to Tinian. North Field is also a National Historic Landmark with protected wildlife, requiring coordination with agencies such as the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Joo said.

Runway Able, where the B-29 Enola Gay took off on Aug. 6, 1945, to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, is among the historically significant areas. North Field also contains structures from Japan’s wartime presence on the island.

“We have been in awe of the scale of the effort and the historical significance of the airfield,” Joo said.

North Field is home to the Marianas kingfisher and other nesting birds, requiring wildlife surveys before vegetation can be cleared, he said.

Fluor, a global construction firm based in Irving, Texas, has a five-year, $409 million contract with the Air Force to support the paving project. Air Force engineers will handle the actual repaving, Joo said.

The engineers’ work, including repaving a road, has cost $7 million so far, said Master Sgt. Eric Flores, a Pacific Air Forces spokesman.

“This project represents a strategic investment in the Pacific, with the Air Force committed to modernizing key infrastructure in the region,” he said by email Feb. 26.