Helipad work underway, track set to close
Soil sampling is underway in the area Bluewater Health is planning to build an up-to $800,000 helipad next year.
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Soil sampling is underway in the area Bluewater Health plans to build an up-to $800,000 helipad next year.
And an eight-lane community track on the former school field the hospital group bought in 2016 will soon be demolished to make room.
“There’s a lot of community affection for the space, so even the smallest change, we want people to be aware that this is happening,” said Bluewater Health’s Julia Oosterman about the borehole-drilling work that began this week.
The hospital expects the helipad to be completed in about a year, and details of its exact location and how it’ll connect to the hospital building still need to be worked out, she said.
Fencing, landscaping and other considerations also need to be finalized to makes sure downdraft from aircraft doesn’t propel stone chips into nearby parking lots, she said.
A cycling path through the property is also planned this fall that also needs to be separated from the helipad – heated for snow control in winter – and could impact when demolition begins on the track, she said.
“There are several different elements,” Oosterman said.
The track will no longer be open for public use this fall, after Sarnia Athletics Southwest Track and Field Club hosts its last track meet at the 1996-built oval in August, she said.
The athletics group, along with a local soccer group, has maintained the track in exchange for its use since Bluewater Health bought the property from the St. Clair Catholic District school board, in the wake of the former St. Patrick’s high school’s demolition there in 2014, said club president and head coach Joel Skinner.
“Certainly our club 100 per cent supports the helipad project,” he said, thanking Bluewater Health and noting the club is indebted to the hospital group’s generosity.
“They were very nice in allowing us to use it,” he said.
The club hopes to work out an arrangement with the Lambton Kent District school board to make use of the $5.4-million athletic field and track being built at Great Lakes secondary, expected to be completed this fall, he said.
The old track was past its useful life, he and Oosterman said.
“Something new coming to our community is fantastic,” Skinner said.
Consultation on the helipad project – half funded by the County of Lambton, with fundraising planned for the remainder – has been ongoing with nearby Hannah Memorial school, the athletic club, the city and county, among others, for several months, Oosterman said.
A flight path study conducted in partnership with Transport Canada and Ornge Air Ambulance went well, she said noting neighbouring Germain Park is useful green space in case an emergency landing is necessary.
“They’re in quickly and gone quickly, so there’s not a lot of air noise,” she said about the pending helicopter traffic.
A geothermal heating system for the former school under the track could complicate building and $800,000 is the expected “worst-case scenario,” Oosterman said.
“Our hope is it comes in less than that.”
Many hospitals as big as and smaller than Sarnia’s have helipads, she said, noting having the air ambulance access means less complicated and faster transfers for very sick patients to Toronto, London or elsewhere.
“The fewer amount of transfers the better,” she said.
From April 2019 to the end of March 2020, nearly 400 people were transferred from Bluewater Health to other hospitals for specialized care, officials said in a news release.
“In emergency medicine, speed can mean the significant difference between good outcomes and bad, and even life or death,” Bluewater Health chief of staff Dr. Mike Haddad said in the release.
“An on-site helipad provides fast access to Ontario’s top trauma centres, burn centres and neonatal intensive care units.”
Details of how the helipad will connect to the hospital also need to be worked out, Oosterman said, noting a hallway in the hospital’s southeast is being eyed as the leading candidate
The land parcel purchased for $1.85 million five years ago has potential for parking and other uses, she said.
“As we continue to expand things in the hospital and continue to develop more services here, we do have more of a squeeze on parking,” Oosterman said.
“So that would be a very logical thing to do.”
Bluewater Health president and CEO Mike Lapaine noted at the time the land was a possible location for the still-pending 24-bed residential withdrawal management services hub, waiting on funding approval from the province to go ahead.
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