Shipping firms to pay $102m settlement for Baltimore Bridge cleanup

Many unresolved claims remain over the bridge collapse, which killed six people and snarled local shipping for months.

The owner and operator of a cargo ship that slammed into a bridge in the United States east coast port of Baltimore earlier this year, collapsing it and killing six people, will pay a $102m settlement for cleanup costs.

The settlement, cleared Friday by a United States district judge, settles the US government’s claims against Singapore-based firms Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Private Limited.

It covers money the US government spent responding to the disaster, including clearing the wreck of the Dali ship and bridge debris from the Port of Baltimore, so the waterway could reopen in June.

“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,” said Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer in a statement.

Shipping firms deny liability

A spokesperson for the Singaporean companies that own and manage the Dali, Darrell Wilson, said they had agreed to the payment even though they deny liability. The spokesperson also noted the companies are fully insured for the settlement costs and that no punitive damages have been imposed.

However, the shipping firms face a litany of other unresolved claims over the bridge disaster, including from the state of Maryland, Baltimore city and county, the families of those killed, workers affected by the port shutdown and insurance companies.

The state of Maryland estimates that rebuilding the bridge will cost between $1.7bn and $1.9bn with completion planned by autumn 2028.

Wilson said the companies “are prepared to vigorously defend themselves … to establish that they were not responsible for the incident.”

The Dali cargo ship lost power and veered off course on March 26 before careening into a support column on the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Six men on a bridge road crew who were filling potholes fell to their deaths as the structure toppled, in what Baltimore Mayor Brandon M Scott called an “unthinkable tragedy”.

The disaster snarled commercial shipping traffic through the Port of Baltimore and put many local longshoremen out of work before the channel was fully reopened in June.

The US Justice Department alleged the ship’s electrical and mechanical systems were improperly maintained, leading to the accident. Specifically, the department pointed to excessive “vibrations” on the ship that attorneys called a “well-known cause of transformer and electrical failure”.

Instead of dealing with the source of the vibrations, crew members “jury-rigged” the ship, the department alleged in its filing.

The ship’s electrical equipment was in such bad condition that an independent agency stopped further electrical testing because of safety concerns, according to the lawsuit.

In April, the FBI opened a criminal investigation into the disaster.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies