New Hampshire and Maine recouped the $1.3 million they spent to repair the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge after a tanker hit it last year, officials said Wednesday.

 

 

"We were made whole of all of our out-of-pocket expenses," said New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General John Conforti.

 

 

The two states sued the tanker, the M/V Harbour Feature, under maritime law, and also required a $2.4 million bond be posted to cover estimated costs and a 50 percent contingency, he said.

 

 

The 473-foot tanker, broke her mooring lines at the New Hampshire State Pier in Portsmouth and struck the bridge, which spans Portsmouth and Kittery, Maine, on April 1, 2013.

 

 

Conforti said he believes the tanker's insurance company will pay the $1.3 million repair cost.
The bridge was closed for six weeks, according to Bill Boynton, spokesman for the New Hampshire Department of Transportation.

 

 

"It was a pretty significant hit" to the bridge, Boynton said.

 

 

Conforti said the federal lawsuit the two states filed in Concord didn't request a specific damage amount at the time. The tanker's management company, TB Ship Management of Hamburg, Germany, answered the lawsuit. John Bass, a Portland, Maine, attorney representing the tanker's interests, didn't return a phone message left Wednesday.

 

 

Ted Talbot, press secretary for the Maine Department of Transportation, said the lawsuit was meant to reimburse the two states, which split the bridge's costs equally.

 

 

"On behalf of the taxpayers, we were entirely made whole by this number," Talbot said.

 

 

The lawsuit, scheduled for trial Oct. 7, was dismissed Monday.

 

 

"Proceedings have a way of working themselves out," Talbot said. "We were trying to avoid a lawsuit to begin with."