Reconstruction and expansion work was held up by the protracted land battle, on 16 March the airfield, named Central Field, became operational, with the east-northeast to west-southwest runway graded to and the east–west runway to . A second runway parallel to the east-northeast to west-southwest runway was also built; both were built to accommodate B-29s. By 7 July 1945, the first B-29 runway had been paved to and placed in operation. During the day, 102 B-29s, returning from a raid on Japan, landed on the field. Several sub-grade failures occurred in the construction because of ground water and soft spots in the sub-grade. In some places the paving sealed off steam which had been generated below the surface and when the steam condensed, the sub-grade became saturated. By 12 July, the B-29 runway had been completed and paved for a length of by . The parallel runway was eventually lengthened to , both with a width of . The east–west runway was developed into a fueling strip, by , with 60 fueling outlets. For normal operations, this field could accommodate 120 P-51 Mustangs, 30 B-24 Liberators and 20 B-29s.
