New construction contract for Maryland’s Purple Line signed

The private consortium managing Maryland’s Purple Line project has signed a $2.3 billion contract with a new construction team to complete the long-delayed light-rail line, according to the consortium and the Maryland Transit Administration. The deal, which went into effect Thursday, adds $1.46 billion to the Purple Line’s construction costs, bringing the total to $3.4 billion. That’s almost 75 percent more than the $1.97 billion the state initially budgeted. About $1.1 billion of work was completed before the original contractor quit in fall 2020 after several years of cost disputes with the state.