Several downtown/waterfront projects are gearing up this week, including installation work on the People’s Pier and exterior improvements at the Washington-Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce.

“We’ve got the People’s Pier. We’re moving along on that. We’ve got the poles set. He’s (the contractor) supposed to start this week,” Bobby Roberson, Washington’s interim city manager, said Tuesday. “In addition to that, we’ve got the chamber of commerce; they’re moving along with their project. They want to put a deck out back. They’ve got that under contract. We’ve worked out all the issues with that and the staging has started. Hopefully, within the next week, we’ll have both of those contractors down at the same location — one working on the People’s Pier, the other working on the back porch of the chamber to create that deck.”

The pier project was put on hold this past spring to protect the spawning areas of certain fish species. That moratorium ended Aug. 1. In previous years, other projects that included pile-driving work were disrupted for the same reason.

In 2009, pile-driving work associated with the construction of the U.S. Highway 17 bypass bridge was halted for several months. The moratorium was developed to protect some species of fish as they migrate upriver to spawn. State policy requires that activities potentially creating an environment not conducive to spawning be suspended until spawning season concludes.

In October 2014, the City Council awarded an $83,124 contract to Sawyer’s Residential & Marine Construction to build the People’s Pier and erect the pier’s gazebo-like structure.

Sawyer’s Residential & Marine Construction submitted the low bid among the three bids received by the city. DB&H Commercial Contractors submitted a $142,300 bid, while TJ’s Marine Construction submitted a $101,800 bid.

The city budgeted $150,000 for the project.

In December 2014, the Washington Historic Preservation Commission unanimously authorized issuing a certificate of appropriateness for the chamber to remove the existing deck and steps at its building at 102 Stewart Parkway and build a new entranceway at the front of the building, designed to resemble the historic Newbold-White House in Hertford, and build a new deck with a handicapped-accessible ramp on the south side (waterfront side) of the structure.

The front entrance will be 8 feet by 4 feet, with the waterside deck measuring 53 feet by 16 feet. The ramp will measure 32 feet long and 4 feet wide, according to city documents.

Composite material will be used to build the decking and railings, according to the document.