Harford County (Map, News) - The Harford County Detention Center is set to begin a $29 million expansion to ease overcrowding.

The two-year construction project, to start in a few weeks, will add 288 beds and an additional 88,000 square feet.

“The county is growing and we need to meet the demands the county puts on us,” said Sgt. Christina Presberry, Harford County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman.

The 123,000-square-foot center now has 474 beds.

County Executive David Craig asked the county’s General Assembly delegation in January to seek state support for the expansion. He said the jail had become so overcrowded that inmates sometimes had to sleep on portable beds set up in common areas.

The state and the county are splitting the cost of the expansion.

Last year, the detention center planed to make minor alterations, said Lorraine Costello, Harford’s director of administration. But the expansion plans came after the state took a closer look at the county’s growing population.

“We’re thrilled to have space,” Costello said.

The three-story expansion will include the addition of four new medium security-housing areas and eight maximum-security units. The processing center and booking areas will also be revamped.

Community response to the project has been minimal. Nobody attended an April 23 meeting on the expansion.

Presberry and Costello said though the military Base Realignment and Closure process has added pressure for quick completion, that wasn’t the original reason behind the decision to expand.