OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE- After 80 years, the hump is gone. The 8-foot bulge near the north end of Offutt Air Force Base’s single runway was one of the airfield’s quirks, one that will now disappear during an 18-month, $198 million reconstruction project that is the most extensive in its long history.

The hump, and a corresponding 8-foot valley toward the south end, were gentle enough that they never posed a threat to pilots, said Lt. Col. Derrick Michaud, director of the 55th Wing Runway Project Management Office.

“This just makes it a straighter runway,” he said. “Our pilots got used to it, but now it will be more of a straight shot.”

For the past five months, a fleet of construction equipment has been swarming over Offutt’s 2-mile runway, chewing it to bits and depositing it into giant piles of rubble.

Much of that concrete will eventually be recycled, mixed with other fill, and compacted to form a base for the new runway, said Rob Hufford, chief of construction management for the project.

The new runway must not only absorb a pounding from Offutt’s fleet of RC-135 reconnaissance jets (with a maximum takeoff weight of almost 149 tons) but also its E-4Bs, which are among the Air Force’s heaviest jets (400 tons).

A layer of concrete 19 inches thick will eventually overlay the portions of the runway that bear the heaviest loads, at each end and where it is crossed by taxiways.

Other parts of the runway (the center and shoulders) will be paved with asphalt up to 8 inches thick, on top of 15 inches of red rock, selected for its strength and drainage qualities and hauled in by rail from a quarry in South Dakota.

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