ESCANABA — The Delta County Airport Crosswind Runway restoration project is finally complete.

The project was completed in less than the two-months given to repair. Aspects of the project included milling and resurfacing the runway, adding LED lights, and realigning the runway ten degrees to the East.

Runway realignments happen once every 50-100 years, so the occasion was a little more than mundane, celebrated with a takeoff and landing from a local pilot.

“It’s very significant for a pilot to be able to take off and land on not only a newly paved runway, but essentially, for all intents and purposes a new runway,” said Delta County Airport Manager T.J. Reid. “It’s a significant opportunity to do something that no pilot will ever get to do probably within their lifetime.”

“It’s kind of fun, what’s really important for me, is that as soon as we take off and come around for a landing, I’ll have hit 500 flight hours,” said Pilot and retired Naval Captain Dennis Hopkins.

Hopkins started flying in January of 2015, and quickly reached his milestone.

Delta County Airport will renovate their primary runway, running East to West, in about two years.