NATCHEZ &8212; After years of discussion and planning, officials broke ground for the helicopter landing-pad behind Natchez Regional Medical Center Wednesday.

Natchez-Adams County Airport is in charge of building the landing pad, and the hospital will operate it once it is completed.

The land has been leveled, and the next step is to build a platform on which helicopters can land, Director of Aviation Clint Pomeroy said. Construction will begin very soon, he said.

&8220;They&8217;re ready to start hauling dirt tomorrow,&8221; Pomeroy said.

The Mississippi Department of Transportation funded the $186,000 project, Pomeroy said.

A helipad behind the hospital will mean patients avoid the roughly 12-mile ambulance ride to the airport, Pomeroy said.

The final product will include a raised paved landing platform, lighting and a ramp for other hospitals&8217; ambulances, among other things, he said.

The helipad will operate as a satellite of the airport, MDOT Executive Director Butch Brown said.

&8220;Anytime you can offer additional services for trauma patients, it brings the hospital up to a new level,&8221; Brown said.

Natchez Regional CEO Jeffrey Wesselman said the landing pad meant quicker care for patients who need to be taken to other hospitals.

&8220;It will mean better clinical attention for our patients,&8221; Wesselman said. &8220;Katrina slowed things down, but we trucked right along with it.&8221;

The project should be finished by the end of October or beginning of November, Natchez Regional Chief Financial Officer Mike Anderson said.