Operator of ship in Baltimore bridge collapse will pay $100 million settlement, DOJ says

Nearly seven months after the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland was struck by a shipping vessel and collapsed, the U.S. Justice Department has reached a settlement of more than $100 million with the companies that owned and operated the vessel, the Dali.

Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and Synergy Marine Private Ltd. have agreed to pay $101,980,000 to settle the civil claim brought by the U.S. for the costs to respond to the “catastrophic collapse,” the Justice Department said in a statement Thursday.

It said the money will go to the U.S. Treasury and other federal agencies that were directly affected by the incident or involved in the response.

In a complaint Sept. 18, the U.S. claimed civil damages totaling $103,078,056 under the Rivers and Harbors Act, the Oil Pollution Act and general maritime law, according to the release.

There are still 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 prompt resolution of this matter also avoids the expense associated with litigating this complex case for potentially years.”

The Dali smashed into the Key Bridge early March 26 after it left the Port of Baltimore en route to Sri Lanka. The ship lost power, regained power, then lost power again before it hit the bridge, causing it to collapse into the Fort McHenry Channel.

Six people who were working on the bridge died.

The shipwreck, which could not be moved, obstructed the channel for months, “bringing all shipping into and out of the Port of Baltimore to a standstill,” the Justice Department said, adding that it also “severed a critical highway in the transportation infrastructure and blocked a key artery for local commuters.”

The Justice Department said the U.S. led response efforts, including coordinating “dozens of federal, state, and local agencies to remove about 50,000 tons of steel, concrete, and asphalt from the channel and from the DALI itself.”

The U.S. also “set up temporary channels to start relieving the bottleneck at the port and mitigate some of the economic devastation caused by the DALI,” it said.