After several delays and proposed design changes, the People’s Pier on Washington’s downtown waterfront opened to the public Friday afternoon.

A grand-opening ceremony will be conducted later, according to John Rodman, the city’s director of community and cultural resources. Earlier Friday, workers took care of last-minute details such as cleaning up after final details associated with the project were completed.

Last month, saying it did not want to spend additional money on the pier, Washington’s City Council unanimously voted to leave the pier in its current configuration.

The council rejected several options regarding the pier. One option, at a cost of $18,480, would have added 6 feet to the east side of the pier’s platform. Another option, at a cost of $25,080, would have added 12 feet to the east side of the platform. An additional $15,500 would have been added to either one of those options if the city decided to relocate the gazebo eastward so it was in the line of sight from the southern end of Market Street. An option to extend the platform 20 feet to the east was not considered by the council.

The pier is in an L-shaped configuration instead of the initial T-shape design. 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 Rodman.

The city budgeted $150,000 for the pier project. In October 2014, the City Council awarded an $83,124 contract to Sawyer’s Residential & Marine Construction to build the pier and erect the gazebo.

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.

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