Monroe, NY – Contractor Builds Free Helipad for Medical Evacuations in Monroe

Monroe, NY – Thanks to the goodwill of a highway contractor, medical helicopters now have a paved landing pad beside the state police barracks in Monroe to speed the evacuation of trauma victims from that area.

A Rockland County company that recently finished rebuilding the Route 17 overpass at County Route 105 laid down the concrete pad as a parting gift for the nearby state police unit, which handles accidents on that busy stretch of Route 17 near the Thruway.

David Tilton, a vice president of Eastern States Construction of Valley Cottage, called the work a gesture of gratitude for being allowed to store equipment beside the barracks during the 18-month-long bridge project. Monroe town officials had broached the idea, he said.

The pad took about a week to build and was done by early November. It measures 60 feet by 60 feet, the minimum size recommended for daytime helicopter landings, according to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla.

Westchester Medical, a top-level trauma center for the Hudson Valley, is the hospital that often dispatches helicopters to Orange County to collect seriously injured accident victims and other trauma patients. Its two-chopper squad is known as STAT Flight (STAT stands for stabilization, treatment and transportation).

Until now, helicopters have found various fields and parking lots on which to land in the Monroe area, using the formerly unpaved patch of land beside the state police barracks only in a pinch.

The new helipad might eliminate some of the more inconvenient landings. In July, for example, troopers stopped mid-day traffic on both sides of Route 17 so a helicopter could land on the highway, almost directly in front of the barracks, to pick up an injured man who had driven off the road.

Capt. Stephen Nevins, commander of the Monroe barracks, said that while the helipad will likely be used primarily for medical evacuations, the state police might land its own helicopters there on occasion for emergency operations.