Ship Owners Are Trying Everything To Avoid Paying Up For Baltimore Bridge Collapse

A massive container ship hit and destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last month, killing six people and shutting one of America’s busiest ports in the process. The company that operates the ship is now trying everything to get out of paying up for the mammoth task of extracting the stricken vessel and repairing the ruined bridge.

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The 935-foot Dali container ship hit the Baltimore bridge on March 26 and since then, the ship has been stuck in place. Ever since the ship hit the bridge, discussions have swirled around who will have to pay to refloat the boat and repair the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which is one of the busiest river crossings in the region.

The company that owns the massive container ship previously attempted to enact an ancient piece of maritime law to limit the compensation it must pay. Now, the company is turning to cargo owners to cough up some of the salvage costs, reports CBS News. According to the site:

The declaration, known as a general average declaration, comes into play following significant maritime incidents to help recoup high recovery expenses.

Allen Black, a maritime attorney at Mills Black LLP, explained the implications of the declaration.

“The classic general average expense is salvage, which is what we are seeing here in Baltimore. Before that vessel and move and the cargo can carry on its way, the bridge has to be removed from on top of it and the vessel has to be towed back to a dock,” Allen said.

In order to figure out how much cargo owners must pay towards the recovery efforts, the Dali first needs to be extracted from underneath the Key Bridge. Once this has been done, the ship will return to port in Baltimore where investigators will offload it and assess the value of everything onboard, reports CBS News.

The value of the Dali’s cargo will be assessed. Photo: Kent Nishimura (Getty Images)

The 4,000 containers onboard will be assessed be independent investigators, who will then bill the cargo companies for whatever they owe for the salvage efforts.

However, the costs recuperated from the cargo companies are expected to fall well short of the costs incurred through the boat’s extraction and the repairs needed on the bridge. Those costs are estimated to spiral from $400 million up to an eye-watering $2 billion, reports The Hill.

The federal government will be on the hook for the majority of those costs, the site reports.