Site work, completion of construction documents and receiving bids on a new Beaufort County jail should take place in the third quarter of this year, according to a tentative schedule for the project.

That schedule and other matters related to building a new jail — called a public-safety complex by those designing the facility and managing its construction — were discussed during a meeting of the Beaufort County jail committee Thursday afternoon. The committee includes commissioners Jerry Langley (chairman of the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners), Al Klemm and Robert Belcher. Also at the meeting were representatives of Moseley Architects, which is designing the project, and M.B. Kahn Construction Co., which is providing construction-management services for the project.

Construction on the project — a jail, sheriff’s office, 911 center and emergency operations center — would begin in the fourth quarter of this year. The project would be completed at the end of 2015, according to the tentative schedule.

The new jail would have a 350-inmate core, meaning it could easily serve up to 350 inmates. The jail’s proposed floor plan calls for a 176-bed base, with the ability to add a 56-bed unit if needed. The jail’s design would allow it to be expanded to serve its 350-inmate core, if needed in the future.

Klemm, who asked several detailed questions during the meeting, noted the jail, as designed, provides improved monitoring of inmates by way of a better line-of-sight arrangement than the existing jail, a better and larger medical area to serve inmates and contains maximum-, medium- and minimum-security areas. The new jail also provides better housing for female and juvenile inmates, he noted.

The proposed budget for the new jail and other facilities is $18 million, with another $2 million budgeted for renovations to the existing courthouse and jail. The new jail would be built in the Chocowinity Industrial Park, south of Chocowinity and just off U.S. Highway 17.

Moseley Architects is considering using steel cells in the jail, along with other options such as prefabricated concrete cells.

An outreach session to try to involved local subcontractors in the project is slated for sometime in May. Details of that meeting, once finalized, will be announced.

The committee meets again at 3 p.m. April 9 at the county administrative offices, 121 W. Third St., Washington.