The owners and operators of the cargo ship that caused the Bridge collapse in Baltimore have agreed to pay more than $102 million in cleanup costs to settle a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, officials said Thursday.
The deal came a month after the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the company that owns the Dali, Grace Ocean Private Ltd., and the operator Synergy Marine Group, both based in Singapore, seeking to recover funds it The government invested in clearing the underwater wreckage and reopening the city’s port, which remained closed to most maritime traffic for months after the collapse.
The agreement does not include compensation for rebuilding the bridge, officials said in a news release. The construction project could reach $2 billion. The state of Maryland filed its own lawsuit seeking to cover those expenses, officials said.
“This resolution ensures that the costs of the federal government’s cleanup efforts in the Fort McHenry Channel are covered by Grace Ocean and Synergy, and not by American taxpayers,” Deputy Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said in a statement.
The Justice Department argued that the ship’s electrical and mechanical systems were improperly maintained, causing a loss of power that led the ship to veer off course before hitting a column on the Francis Scott Key Bridge last March. The ship was leaving the port of Baltimore en route to Sri Lanka at the time of the incident.
Six migrant workers who were filling potholes died after falling from the bridge. The collapse affected commercial vessel traffic through the Port of Baltimore for several months until the canal was fully reopened in June.
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