The owner and manager of the cargo ship that caused a Baltimore bridge to collapse has agreed to pay more than $100 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice, officials announced Thursday.

The settlement comes a month after the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Daly’s owner, Grace Ocean Private Limited, and its manager Synergy Marine Group, both in Singapore, seeking to recover more than $100 million the government spent to remove underwater debris and reopen the city’s port.

“This decision ensures that the costs of the federal government’s cleanup efforts in the Fort McHenry Channel will be borne by Grace Ocean and Synergy, not American taxpayers,” Chief Deputy Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said in a statement.

Get daily national news

Get the day’s top political, economic and current affairs news, headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

The Justice Department alleged that electrical and mechanical systems aboard the ship, the Daly, were improperly maintained, causing it to lose power and veer off course before colliding with a support column on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March.

The collapse blocked commercial shipping traffic through the Port of Baltimore for several months before the canal was fully opened in June.

More to come…

1:34
The city of Baltimore is suing the operator of the ship that struck the Key Bridge