SFO to see big delays Memorial Day weekend due to paving work

San Francisco International Airport as seen on Wednesday, April 19, 2017. San Francisco International Airport as seen on Wednesday, April 19, 2017. Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 25 Caption Close SFO to see big delays Memorial Day weekend due to paving work 1 / 25 Back to Gallery

Major flight delays and numerous cancellations are expected at San Francisco International Airport this Memorial Day weekend because of maintenance work that needs to be completed on the tarmac before the summer rush, officials said Monday.

A $35 million repaving project scheduled for weekends this spring was supposed to be put on hold this Saturday and Sunday to accommodate holiday travel. But after the work fell behind, officials decided they couldn’t afford to take the weekend off.

“Yeah, it might impose an inconvenience during the Memorial Day weekend, but it would impose a much greater inconvenience during the peak summer weekends that we’re starting to get into,” said airport spokesman Doug Yakel.

Flight delays are expected to average 30 to 90 minutes between the start of work at 10 p.m. Friday and the end of the job at roughly 4 p.m. Monday. The number of flight cancellations is expected to be similar to the level seen in recent weekends, when about 100 a day were grounded — about 8 percent of the total.

The delays and cancellations, airport officials said, will compare to the disruption caused by a winter storm. Travelers are advised to keep in close touch with their carriers.

The repaving work is being done on one of the airport’s four primary runways, a landing path known as Runway 28L. Because the landing strip must be closed when workers pour asphalt, crews have tried to minimize the disturbance by working nights and weekends since late March.

Officials had initially hoped to finish the project by the second weekend of June, a schedule that included suspending the job over the Memorial Day weekend. However, rain on the weekend of April 8 and strong winds on the weekend of May 6 canceled the work and extended the timeline.

Facility officials consulted with airline representatives and the Federal Aviation Administration before changing plans.

“The consensus was to do a (runway) closure over the Memorial Day weekend in order to get the work done before airline schedules increase on June 8,” Yakel said. By working this weekend, he said, airport officials hope to get back on their original schedule.

Typically, about 65,000 people depart from the airport on a Friday. This Friday, holiday travel is expected to boost that number to 80,000, and come summer, as many as 90,000 people depart each Friday, the busiest day of the week.

The repaving work on Runway 28L is part of the strip’s routine, necessary maintenance. The landing path was last paved in 2008, and should be redone every eight to 12 years, officials said.

The project includes new lights along the runway’s center line and an additional taxiway for planes. Officials likened the job to redoing four lanes of Highway 101 for 10 miles.

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander