The owners and operators of the containership Dali agreed to pay more than $100 million to settle a civil claim from the U.S. government over the ship’s allision and catastrophic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
Six highway construction workers died in the March 26 span collapse and the port of Baltimore was shut down until June 10, after a massive effort to remove 50,000 tons of steel and concrete debris along with the 984’ Dali pinned under the bridge span.
Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Private Limited, Singaporean corporations that owned and operated the Dali, agreed to pay the settlement, the U.S Justice Department said Thursday. The settlement money “will go to the U.S. Treasury and to the budgets of several federal agencies directly affected by the allision or involved in the response,” according to the agency.
“Thanks to the hard work of the Justice Department attorneys since day one of this disaster, we were able to secure this early settlement of our claim, just over one month into litigation,” said Benjamin C. Mizer, a principal deputy associate attorney general. “This resolution ensures that the costs of the federal government’s cleanup efforts in the Fort McHenry Channel are borne by Grace Ocean and Synergy and not the American taxpayer.”
The Dali was outbound from Baltimore for Sri Lanka in the early morning hours of March 26 when the vessel lost power, briefly got power back on, and then lost power again before striking a bridge pier and collapsing the span.
The Dali owners and operators had sought to limit their liability to $43.7 million, according to the Department of Justice. Still to be resolved are legal claims from the state of Maryland, Baltimore city, families of the highway workers died and others.
