Construction workers on the Purple Line could pack up their equipment by later this month. When they’ll pick them back up is unclear.

The light-rail line connecting Riverdale Park and College Park to Silver Spring and Bethesda to the west and New Carrolton to the east could be delayed for a year or more due to a dispute between the state and private contractors.

Maryland transit officials said last month that they may take as long as six months to decide how to move forward, whether that’s managing some work themselves, hiring a contractor or finding another private group to work with.

Or they may yet patch things up with the existing consortium. The Maryland Department of Transportation, Purple Line Transit Partners and the bank financing the project agreed this week to hold off on canceling the deal until the end of the month to buy a little more time to strike a deal.

The back-and-forth can be hard to follow, but the problems can be traced back to Chevy Chase residents’ opposition and the state’s decision to build it as a public-private partnership.

Opponents tried to stop the transit line with three separate lawsuits, one of which put the project a year behind schedule and added as much as $131 million to the cost.

Rather than build it directly, the state also signed a complex legal agreement with a consortium called Purple Line Transit Partners that would be responsible for laying tracks in exchange for taking on some of the risk.