Camarillo Airport's Runway 8-26 now has a construction contract with a start month attached. On August 4, 2026, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors gave Granite Construction a $9,226,867.85 contract to rehabilitate Runway 8-26. The county's latest project report says work should begin in March 2027. The full closure is scheduled for 20 days out of a 62-day contract. For Sterling Hills residents who use the airport for lunch, a museum visit or a Saturday flight, the most useful fact is how hard the county worked to keep that window short.
That effort shows in three places: how much work the county decided to do, how it lined up the phases, and what it pays the contractor to finish early. The winter before construction starts runs on the airport's usual schedule.
How a $38 Million Rebuild Became a Three-Inch Overlay
This spring's runway job started out much bigger. The county's July 8, 2026 award letter explains that the Airports Capital Improvement Plan, approved April 14, 2026, had assumed a "substantially larger runway reconstruction project" at roughly $38 million. As design went on, more pavement testing and geotechnical work showed that a rehabilitation, "consisting primarily of a three-inch mill and overlay," was structurally sound and fit the runway's current condition.
The smaller scope is what makes the short timeline possible. A mill and overlay grinds off the top layer of pavement and lays new asphalt over what's left. The cost dropped from about $38 million to just over $9.2 million, and the job that remains fits into a 62-day contract.
Funding is in place. An FAA Airport Improvement Program grant of $14,468,517, awarded September 18, 2025, plus up to $200,000 in Caltrans matching funds, covers the work and its administration, according to the same letter. Bids were opened May 13, 2026, and Granite came in as the lowest responsive bidder of the three.
The 62 Days, Phase by Phase
The award letter sets the order of the work. Only the first phase stops all runway traffic.
| Phase | Length | Runway status |
|---|---|---|
| Paving and lighting improvements | 20 days | Fully closed |
| Pavement curing | About 30 days | Open to aircraft |
| Grooving and final markings | 12 nighttime closures | Reopens each day for normal operations |
For anyone living near the field, the middle phase matters. After paving, the runway reopens for the roughly month-long curing period. The last phase happens at night, and the letter says the runway "will reopen each day for normal aircraft operations." So the fully quiet stretch is about three weeks. The rest of the 62 days looks like a normal airport, apart from a dozen overnight work sessions.
Those 20 days are the stretch the county most wants to shorten, and it wrote that goal into the contract.
The Contract Pays to Shorten the Quiet Part
The award letter includes a clause aimed straight at the full closure:
"The contract also includes a No-Excuse Early Completion Incentive of $50,000 per day, up to a maximum of $250,000, for reopening Runway 8-26 ahead of the twenty-day closure period. The incentive is intended to encourage early completion of the runway closure work and reduce impacts to airport users."
That language comes from the July 9, 2026 Camarillo/Oxnard Airport Authority agenda packet. The bonus stops at $250,000, which equals five days. If Granite earns all of it, the full closure ends after 15 days. The county is paying to beat the 20-day schedule.
The county started on this early. The September project report notes a stakeholder meeting held January 26, 2026, to tell airport tenants about the project and its expected schedule and to hear their comments. The county issued Granite its notice of award on August 7. Staff are now working through preconstruction tasks before the March start.
What Isn't on the Calendar Yet
The county hasn't published an exact start date. Its latest project table gives "March 2027 (anticipated)" for the start and nothing more specific for the closure itself. That's still tighter than the July letter, which said construction was "anticipated to start in early 2027."
The airport's public meetings are the place to watch for exact dates. The Camarillo/Oxnard Airport Authority called off its October 8 meeting for lack of agenda items. The county's meeting archive lists November 5 as the next scheduled meeting. That's a week after this post goes up.
The county has also started a less formal way to ask questions. Airport Connect is an open-house-style session where community members can talk about airport matters with Department of Airports staff. The county called the October 13 session at 555 Airport Way, Suite B, the first one.
Neither of the airport's best-known public places, Waypoint Café or the Commemorative Air Force museum, has said anything about how the runway work might affect it.
An Ordinary Winter at the Field, in Order
With construction set for March, the airport spends the coming months on its usual schedule. Here's the order things happen in, starting from the week this post publishes:
- Every week except Mondays, Waypoint Café. The café sits at 325 Durley Ave. Visit Camarillo's listing gives hours of 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, closed Monday. It also notes indoor and outdoor seating, aircraft viewing and a miniature runway. The menu runs from omelets, waffles and cinnamon rolls to hamburgers, salads and shakes. On Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, the café's own site promotes tri-tip cooked on an oak-fired grill, and it sums up its draw as food, family and flying.
- Thursday through Sunday, the CAF hangars. The Commemorative Air Force Southern California Wing museum is at the corner of Eubanks and Airport Drive. It lists hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free and donations are encouraged. Inside are World War II aviation artifacts and displays, an aviation library and a gift shop. The hours come from a page posted in December 2025, so check before you go.
- Most Saturdays, warbird rides. The wing's ride program is taking reservations for flights in the PBJ, PT-19 and SNJ. Riders must be at least 12 and physically able to climb in and out of the aircraft. Flights are usually on Saturdays, depending on weather and on aircraft and pilot availability.
- Saturday, December 5, 2026, Pearl Harbor 85th Anniversary and the A6M Zero. The CAF homepage lists this as the wing's next presentation and says more details will follow. No November presentation appears on the schedule.
- March 2027, the runway project begins. That starts the 20-day full closure, then roughly 30 days of curing with the runway open, then the 12 nighttime closures.
- August 21 and 22, 2027, Wings Over Camarillo. The air show has announced dates for its 47th year. If the 62-day contract starts in March as planned, it ends months before the show.
That order is the practical takeaway for Sterling Hills. The Pearl Harbor program, the Saturday rides and the oak-grilled tri-tip all come before construction. The air show comes well after a 62-day job that starts in March is scheduled to wrap up. The only stretch the county expects to keep aircraft off the runway is a paving phase scheduled for 20 days, and it's paying Granite to finish faster.
Airport projects, school calendars and the summer air show all affect when a Sterling Hills home shows its best. If you'd like to know where your home's value stands before spring, Puckett Team Real Estate can put together a current, neighborhood-specific estimate. Get your free home valuation and we'll go over the numbers with you.
