diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
index ca9801f4a7..e5e137364c 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
@@ -1790,7 +1790,7 @@ impl Timeline {
                 generation,
                 shard_identity,
                 pg_version,
-                layers: LayerManager::new(Arc::clone(&tenant_conf)),
+                layers: Arc::new(RwLock::new(LayerManager::new(Arc::clone(&tenant_conf)))),
 
                 walredo_mgr,
                 walreceiver: Mutex::new(None),