The overall cost of the Purple Line has gone up to $3.4 billion.

Under the terms of a new contract signed by a private consortium managing the project and contractors, major work on the 16-mile light rail line which will run through Riverdale Park and College Park is set to resume this spring.

But the price tag is now almost 75 percent more than the $1.97 billion initially budgeted by the state.

The cost increase came due to three lawsuits from Chevy Chase residents that ultimately failed in court, pandemic-related construction problems and cost overruns typical of transportation projects in the U.S.

The new price tag puts the cost of the project at $212 million per mile, more than double the high end of a light-rail project.

Contractors say that any future cost overruns are unlikely as they’ve already handled two of the biggest potential problems: environmental permits, such as the ones Chevy Chase residents sought to halt, and moving underground utility lines, which contractors have continued during the current delay.

Construction on the Purple Line began in August 2017 and stopped in October 2020, though work on the light-rail project is slated to start again this spring with a new contractor made up of two of the world’s largest heavy-construction firms, Dragados and OHL, both of which are based in Madrid.

Officials now expect that trains will be running in 2025, putting the project about three years behind schedule.

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