By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The owner and operator of the cargo ship that struck Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in March, killing six people, have agreed to pay $102 million to the federal government, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday.

The department in September filed a civil claim seeking $103 million from two Singaporean companies, Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Private Limited. The claim was intended to recoup the money the U.S. government spent responding to the disaster and clearing the wreck of the Dali ship and bridge debris from the Port of Baltimore so the waterway could reopen in June.

Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said the settlement “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 National Transportation Safety Board said in May the Dali lost electrical power several times before it crashed into the bridge in the Patapsco River early March 26. The FBI in April opened a criminal investigation into the disaster.

The Justice Department’s lawsuit was brought as part of a legal action initiated by Grace Ocean and Synergy to limit their liability for the crash to $44 million, a sum department officials called “woefully inadequate.”

The ship slammed into a support pylon, sending the bridge plunging into the river.

The reopening required the removal of 50,000 tons of debris. More than 1,500 individual responders, along with 500 specialists from around the world, operated a fleet of boats during the operation, which involved 56 federal, state, and local agencies. The state of Maryland, which estimates that it will cost $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion to rebuild the bridge and anticipates completion by fall 2028, separately filed claims against the companies for the cost of the bridge, cleanup efforts, environmental claims and other costs.

Funds recovered by Maryland for reconstruction of the bridge will be used to reduce the project costs paid by the U.S. government, DOJ said.

(Reporting by Jasper Ward and Eric Beech; editing by David Ljunggren and Rod Nickel)

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