Because of safety concerns, the People’s Pier being built at Washington’s downtown waterfront, will be L-shaped instead of T-shaped.

The change should allow boaters using the city’s free dock (I dock) to have better maneuverability around the pier as they leave the free dock, according to a memorandum from John Rodman, the city’s community and cultural services director, to the mayor and City Council. “We felt the turning radius for the docked boats that were trying to leave may not be made safely with the short distance between the dock and the pier,” Rodman wrote in the memorandum.

The new configuration of the pier will not increase the size of the pier, Rodman wrote. The original T-shape design of the pier platform called for the platform to be 42 feet by 35 feet, or 1,470 square feet. The modification will not increase the cost of building the pier, according to Rodman. The N.C. Division of Coastal Management has approved the modifications, according to the memorandum.

The design change is the latest incident regarding construction of the pier.

Construction of the pier was delayed several months earlier this year. The pier project was put on hold in 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.

Construction was expected to begin in early August, but again it was delayed.

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

Plans for the pier show it extending from south of Harding Square and into the Pamlico River. The walkway is about 32 feet long and 8 feet wide.

The proposed gazebo-like structure will be in the shape of a polygon, according to city documents. That structure will be about 20 feet by 20 feet. Its purpose is to provide shade during summer months.

Fishing from the pier will not be allowed, and boats may not tie up to it.