GLENEDEN BEACH — The runway at the Siletz Bay State Airport has reopened after a weeklong closure, restoring a critical link in the state’s aviation system.

According to the Oregon Dept. of Aviation (ODA), portions of the 30-ft.-wide runway have been repaved, resealed, and a dip has been leveled out for smoother landings. All new lighting has also been installed. Construction ended in late October with the final coat of markings, including giant numerals 35 and 17 to mark the ends of the main runway — compass headings for incoming aircraft.

Located four miles south of Lincoln City with a landing pattern over the first hole at Salishan Golf Course, the airport was constructed in 1971. One of 28 state-owned fields operated by ODA, Siletz Bay State Airport boasts a 3,300-ft. runway capable of handling small jets, business and emergency aircraft and 15 hangars.

According to ODA , the airfield has been designated as having a “significant purpose in the air transportation system of the U.S.,” earning it federal funds. Small by most standards, aeronautics authorities say the field is a crucial link for 45,000 fulltime residents isolated by a mountain range and dependent on fragile highways. It would serve as a launch point for firefighting aircraft in the event of another Tillamook-style “burn” and as a landing zone for supplies.

U.S. Coast Guard aircraft, LifeFlight helicopters and Fed-X cargo planes are frequent visitors to the field. Entertainers and well-heeled visitors fly in for Chinook Winds Casino or the nearby Salishan Resort. Typically, about 4,000 takeoffs and landings per year are made here — mainly by private pilots — a fraction of the 100,000 made at the state’s busiest airport at Aurora, near Wilsonville.

The field has runway lighting, a rotating beacon and a couple of windsocks, but no tower or modern navigational aids that would allow socked-in pilots to risk a takeoff or landing in sketchy weather. That austerity is a lure for carefree aviators, however.

“When the Oregon coast isn’t covered in fog, our favorite stop is Siletz Bay State Airport,” reported Adventure Pilot, a popular web site for aviators. “You’ll find other aviators with their tents pitched against their airplanes or at campsites tucked into the nearby woods.”