U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan have signed an agreement to build a 16-mile light rail project in the traffic-congested Maryland suburbs of the nation's capital.
They held groundbreaking ceremony on Monday in Hyattsville.
Chao commended the fact that the project is a public-private partnership. She says the department is focused on making it easier for states to use a relatively new way of funding expensive infrastructure projects.
The agreement will free up $325 million in federal funds already appropriated and a total of $900 million.
The Purple Line will run through Montgomery and Prince George's counties. It will provide rail transportation between the state's two largest counties with a combined population of more than 1.8 million people.
The total construction cost is about $2 billion.
