A Maryland circuit court has granted state transportation agencies a restraining order to delay the private concession developing the troubled $2-billion Purple Line rail line from departing its worksites on Aug. 22. That date had been previously announced amid months of negotiation over cost and schedule disputes on the public-private partnership project.

Judge Jeffrey Geller in Baltimore said in his Aug. 10 order, announced by the state on Aug. 11, that Purple Line Transit Partners LLC is “enjoined and restrained from demobilizing and abandoning” the project and agreed with state agencies that they will “suffer immediate, substantial, and irreparable injury” if the consortium is allowed to depart before establishing a contractual right to do so, and without completing dispute resolution procedures detailed in in the P3 agreement.