The owner and operator of the cargo ship that caused a Baltimore bridge collapse has agreed to pay nearly $102 million to settle a civil lawsuit with the Department of Justice, the DOJ announced Thursday.

The Dali collided with one of the columns of the Francis Scott Key bridge in March, after the ship suffered mechanical issues, which caused the bridge to collapse and kill six workers. 

The incident forced Baltimore to close its port and federal channel for months, which slowed commercial shipping traffic that flowed through Maryland’s largest city.

As The Epoch Times’ Caden Pearson reports, the DOJ announced the settlement with Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine, the owners and operators of the Motor Vessel Dali, on Oct. 24.

The deal resolves a portion of the legal dispute that began in September when the DOJ sued the companies for damages linked to the federal government’s response to the incident.

The $101.9 million settlement will cover the federal government’s costs for cleaning up the wreckage and reopening the port. However, it does not address the cost of rebuilding the bridge itself, which the state of Maryland is pursuing in a separate claim.

“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,” Benjamin Mizer, principal deputy associate attorney general, said in a statement.

“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.”

In a separate move, Grace Ocean has already paid nearly $100,000 to the Coast Guard to address the oil spill threat caused by the wreck.

“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,” said Brian Boynton, principal deputy assistant attorney general at the DOJ.

The disaster occurred on March 26 when the Motor Vessel Dali lost power while departing the Port of Baltimore for Sri Lanka.

After regaining and then losing power again, the ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing it to collapse into the water below.

The collapse halted shipping traffic in and out of the port for weeks and severed a critical highway connection.

Federal, state, and local agencies worked together to clear over 50,000 tons of debris from the water. Shipping resumed by June after temporary channels were created to ease the jam.

The $100 million settlement does seem a little shy of the estimates of the costs involved in rebuilding the bridge.

As Shailen Bhatt, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, confirmed to lawmakers in May, a preliminary estimate to replace the bridge at $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion. It will take four years to construct, with completion estimated to come sometime in 2028, he said.

So while they may claim the “American taxpayer” is off the hook,  we suspect that is another lie (because the optics would be bad).