Folks planning to take a stroll around Columbia Point’s Harbor Walk will have to take a road less traveled through detours as crews work to rehabilitate the pathway and shoreline through the end of the year.

The detour will pull off the Harbor Walk at the waterfront at the Massachusetts Archives, diverting to the new walkway along University Drive north, before rejoining the HarborWalk at Harbor Point apartments.

The $4 million project will restore and stabilize an 800-foot stretch of shoreline on the north side of UMass Boston, between the JFK Presidential Library and Harbor Point apartments, the university said. The current path will be replaced by a paved walkway even closer to the water, as well as benches, lighting, gathering spaces, interpretive signs with historical narratives, and a space to display artwork.

The project, expected to wrap in January, will use nearly 11 million pounds of stone to fortify the peninsula’s shoreline.