Waterford ― A 240-foot barge owned by Cashman Dredging and Marine Contracting, LLC ran aground on a sandbar in the Thames River Monday.

Ensign Gabriel Alves, of United States Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound, had said around 6:30 p.m. Monday night that the barge was still stuck about a quarter-mile north of the Naval Submarine Base off the coast of Bartlett Point in the Quaker Hill section of town.

Alves said at approximately 3:29 p.m. the station learned from a bystander that the barge was stuck, and has received multiple calls since then, also reporting commercial tugboats trying to free the barge.

On Tuesday, GS-11 John Olson, of Sector Long Island Sound said the boat had been freed Monday, after about three hours being stuck.

Alves said the Coast Guard was “able to get in contact with the operator of the vessel. They’re going to keep trying to start their engines.”

Alves said the sector has now handed the case off to its marine investigators, who will conduct an investigation to determine what caused the accident.

He added that according to Arctic Dawn, one of the tugboats attempting to free the barge, as of 6:45 p.m. the barge was “almost clear of the sandbar.”

Gales Ferry Intermodal, a subsidiary of Cashman Dredging and Marine Contracting, LLC of Quincy, Mass., is proposing to develop a controversial quarry operation at the former Dow Chemical site off Route 12 in Gales Ferry. That application is pending.