The police training center in southern Carroll County, entering its final phase of construction, will include two more vacant hospital buildings than planned.

As a period of demolition ends and renovations begin to about 60,000 square feet of space on property that was once part of Springfield Hospital Center, plans for the state's $60 million Public Safety Training Center have been expanded to convert two more buildings into dormitories with about 110 beds.

Law enforcement officers from across the state - as many as 500 a day - will train in various aspects of police work at the center on former state hospital property along Route 32 in Sykesville.

As work progressed on the classroom aspects, state officials saw a need for more dormitory space than the 48 bedrooms originally designed.

Already, a firing range and drivers training course are in use.

The final phase - the restoration of about 60,000 square feet in the hospital's cavernous Hubner and T buildings into classrooms, offices, laboratories, a cafeteria and dormitories - began in July.

The only new construction is a 20,000-square-foot physical training center.