A merchant ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March, disrupting maritime traffic for months
The US Department of Justice has filed a federal civil claim against the Singapore-based companies whose cargo ship destroyed a bridge near Baltimore earlier this year, closing one of the largest American ports for months.
The container ship MV Dali struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge on the evening of March 26, killing six road workers and collapsing the major highway artery built in 1977.
“With this civil claim, the Justice Department is working to ensure that the costs of clearing the channel and reopening the Port of Baltimore are borne by the companies that caused the crash, not by the American taxpayer,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Wednesday.
The DOJ is suing Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Private Limited, both based in Singapore, who owned and operated the Dali. Shortly after the crash, the two companies moved to limit their liability to around $44 million. The US government seeks at least $100 million, along with punitive damages.
The US government wants to recover the costs of clearing the bridge debris, reopening the channel for shipping, and dealing with the “substantial risk of oil pollution.” Federal, state and local agencies had to remove about 50,000 tons of steel, concrete and asphalt and clear “a series of temporary channels to start relieving the bottleneck at the port and mitigate some of the economic devastation” caused by the wreck. The Fort McHenry Channel was not fully reopened until June 10.