Maryland officials have agreed to pay $250 million to the Purple Line Transit Partners to settle a lawsuit against the state over hundreds of millions of dollars in cost overruns. The suit had threatened to derail work on the light rail line and further delay the beleaguered project.

An updated cost and timeline for the project won’t become clear until after a new design-builder is hired in the coming months. The latest estimates push the opening date for the line to 2024, more than two years later than planned. The project was originally estimated to cost $5.6 billion, making the Purple Line among the largest public-private partnerships for infrastructure in the country.

The 16-mile, 21-station light rail line, which will run from Bethesda to New Carrollton, has been plagued with issues from the start. Construction kicked off in 2017, but neighbors tried to block construction over ridership projections and environmental concerns. In May, Purple Line Transit Partners (which is made up of three individual companies) announced they would leave the project over delays and cost overruns. Work on the project has continued under the watch of the state while the parties negotiated.

In late November, officials announced a settlement in which Maryland will proceed with a revised public-private partnership with two of the three original partners and seek a replacement for the third. The private partners will run the light rail line for 30 years.

Gov. Larry Hogan said he was pleased with the deal and the “very tough negotiations” that he said saved the state more than $550 million.

“The Purple Line is a long time coming and we have certainly had to overcome some significant hurdles,” Hogan said, mentioning the project’s troubled past. “Opponents delayed it for two years, costing the taxpayers money and threatening to kill this critical project.”

The Maryland Board of Public Works approved the payment 3-0 in a vote Tuesday. The first $100 million will be paid before the end of the year. The remainder will be paid out either after a new design-builder for the Purple Line has been selected or after a year, whichever comes first.

The state took over nearly 200 contracts after the group backed out of the project, and it will continue working on the project until a new design-builder is chosen.

After a design-builder is selected, Purple Line Transit Partners will take on the additional project costs through a combination of debt and equity. The existing federal loans will be refinanced to take advantage of low-interest rates right now, and Maryland will reap those savings.

Secretary of Transportation Greg Slater said Maryland also wanted to make sure the group “had some skin in the game as well” so they will increase their equity in the project and reduce their rate of return from the project by 20%.

“I believe this settlement before you now protects the state’s interests and citizens and enables us to deliver a completed project in the shortest time frame possible,” Slater said.

Treasurer Nancy Kopp said she does worry about what happens if Maryland can’t find a new design-builder, but said the state has gotten a “tremendous amount of interest” from potential bidders.

“We believe the market is in great shape right now to get one, a great partner for the state to finish the construction, but two, a great market to get us some value with a competitive environment to be able to get there,” she said.