Nearly seven months after the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland was struck by a ship and collapsed, the U.S. Department of Justice has reached a settlement of more than $100 million with the companies that owned and operated the ship, the Dali.
Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and Synergy Marine Private Ltd., based in Singapore, have agreed to pay $101.98 million to settle a civil claim filed by the U.S. for costs incurred in responding to the “catastrophic collapse,” the Justice Department said in a statement Thursday.
It said the money will go to the U.S. Treasury Department and other federal agencies that were directly affected by the incident or were involved in the response.
In a Sept. 18 complaint, the U.S. sought civil damages totaling $103,078,056 under the Rivers and Harbors Act, the Oil Pollution Act and general maritime law, the release said.
There are dozens of outstanding civil claims, including one from the state of Maryland, seeking damages from the owners of the Dali.
According to the Justice Department, Thursday’s settlement does not include damages to rebuild the bridge, because Maryland built, owned, maintained and operated it.
“This is a tremendous outcome that fully compensates the United States for the costs it incurred in responding to this disaster and holds the owner and operator of the DALI accountable,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said in a statement. “The expeditious resolution of this matter also avoids the expense of litigating this complex matter, which could take years.”
The Dali struck the Key Bridge in early March after leaving the Port of Baltimore en route to Sri Lanka. The ship lost power, regained power, then lost power again before striking the bridge, causing it to collapse into the Fort McHenry Channel.
Six people working on the bridge were killed.
The shipwreck, which could not be moved, blocked the channel for months, “shutting down all shipping in and out of the Port of Baltimore,” the Justice Department said, adding that it also “cut off a critical transportation infrastructure highway and blocked a major artery for local commuters.”
The Justice Department said the U.S. led the response, which included coordinating “dozens of federal, state and local agencies to remove approximately 50,000 tons of steel, concrete and asphalt from the channel and from the DALI itself.”
The US has also “set up temporary channels to ease port bottlenecks and mitigate some of the economic devastation damage caused by the DALI,” the report said.