New London - In the summer of 2005, staring down the barrel of a lawsuit filed by a Bloomfield resident who said he required surgery after tripping on a loose board and falling on the boardwalk at Ocean Beach Park, the city knew it had to do something about the aging wooden deck.

The end result? Nailed it.

Or, more precisely, fastened it, with more than 400,000 screws and a lot of help from volunteers.

On Tuesday morning, nearly four years after the effort to overhaul the boardwalk's decking began, the last new plank was laid into place.

The boards are made of Ipe, a dense Brazilian wood that should last at least 25 years and resist insects, moisture, mold and movement. If you lined up all the boards used in the restoration of the boardwalk, they would stretch from New London to Springfield, Mass.

Ocean Beach Park Manager Dave Sugrue, who couldn't be reached to comment late Tuesday night, said earlier that volunteers from different organizations have been critical to the project.

One of those volunteers was Carl Lee, who was among a crew of workers who laid the last plank Tuesday and applied some finishing touches.

”It was a good project for me,” Lee said. “I retired Sept. 9, 2005, from Shetucket Plumbing, and I started as a volunteer that winter.”

For the past two years, Lee was paid for 20 hours a week, but worked at least 25 a week, he estimated. Not that he was alone.

”I can't say enough nice things about anyone who helped us,” Lee said.

Lee singled out Richard Damon, who, he said, was “there as much as possible, probably 50 hours per month for four years.”

Lee acknowledged, though, that there were some trying times.

”We always said about working the next day, 'Weather permitting,'” he said. “Well, one day it was 101 degrees. And a couple of months ago, we worked when it was 4 degrees, or 4 below zero, I can't remember. It was brutal.”

In 2006, the City Council voted to accept a $500,000 interest-free loan from Boston Culinary Group, which runs the park, to finance repairs to the boardwalk.

Last refurbished in 1978, the boardwalk was expected to last 15 years. It long outlived that expectation, but extensive disrepair - and more than one lawsuit - finally forced the city to close it. Engineers estimated it would cost $2 million to repair the entire boardwalk.

Boston Culinary Group, which manages the park, had three years remaining on its contract and got a 10-year contract extension in exchange for the $500,000 loan. Five years into the contract extension, the city will have the option of buying the extension back at a cost of $50,000 per year.

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