diff --git a/libs/utils/src/guard_arc_swap.rs b/libs/utils/src/guard_arc_swap.rs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..cec520246067
--- /dev/null
+++ b/libs/utils/src/guard_arc_swap.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+//! A wrapper around `ArcSwap` that ensures there is only one writer at a time and writes
+//! don't block reads.
+
+use arc_swap::ArcSwap;
+use std::sync::Arc;
+use tokio::sync::TryLockError;
+
+pub struct GuardArcSwap<T> {
+    inner: ArcSwap<T>,
+    guard: tokio::sync::Mutex<()>,
+}
+
+pub struct Guard<'a, T> {
+    _guard: tokio::sync::MutexGuard<'a, ()>,
+    inner: &'a ArcSwap<T>,
+}
+
+impl<T> GuardArcSwap<T> {
+    pub fn new(inner: T) -> Self {
+        Self {
+            inner: ArcSwap::new(Arc::new(inner)),
+            guard: tokio::sync::Mutex::new(()),
+        }
+    }
+
+    pub fn read(&self) -> Arc<T> {
+        self.inner.load_full()
+    }
+
+    pub async fn write_guard(&self) -> Guard<'_, T> {
+        Guard {
+            _guard: self.guard.lock().await,
+            inner: &self.inner,
+        }
+    }
+
+    pub fn try_write_guard(&self) -> Result<Guard<'_, T>, TryLockError> {
+        let guard = self.guard.try_lock()?;
+        Ok(Guard {
+            _guard: guard,
+            inner: &self.inner,
+        })
+    }
+}
+
+impl<T> Guard<'_, T> {
+    pub fn read(&self) -> Arc<T> {
+        self.inner.load_full()
+    }
+
+    pub fn write(&mut self, value: T) {
+        self.inner.store(Arc::new(value));
+    }
+}
diff --git a/libs/utils/src/lib.rs b/libs/utils/src/lib.rs
index 2c56dd750f75..1fb18e9e9a21 100644
--- a/libs/utils/src/lib.rs
+++ b/libs/utils/src/lib.rs
@@ -98,6 +98,8 @@ pub mod try_rcu;
 
 pub mod pprof;
 
+pub mod guard_arc_swap;
+
 // Re-export used in macro. Avoids adding git-version as dep in target crates.
 #[doc(hidden)]
 pub use git_version;
diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
index d6ae11e67d8d..f24611e1d833 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
@@ -51,7 +51,9 @@ use tokio::{
 use tokio_util::sync::CancellationToken;
 use tracing::*;
 use utils::{
-    fs_ext, pausable_failpoint,
+    fs_ext,
+    guard_arc_swap::GuardArcSwap,
+    pausable_failpoint,
     postgres_client::PostgresClientProtocol,
     sync::gate::{Gate, GateGuard},
 };
@@ -353,8 +355,8 @@ pub struct Timeline {
     // though let's keep them both for better error visibility.
     pub initdb_lsn: Lsn,
 
-    /// When did we last calculate the partitioning? Make it pub to test cases.
-    pub(super) partitioning: tokio::sync::Mutex<((KeyPartitioning, SparseKeyPartitioning), Lsn)>,
+    /// The repartitioning result. Allows a single writer and multiple readers.
+    pub(crate) partitioning: GuardArcSwap<((KeyPartitioning, SparseKeyPartitioning), Lsn)>,
 
     /// Configuration: how often should the partitioning be recalculated.
     repartition_threshold: u64,
@@ -2340,7 +2342,8 @@ impl Timeline {
                     // initial logical size is 0.
                     LogicalSize::empty_initial()
                 },
-                partitioning: tokio::sync::Mutex::new((
+
+                partitioning: GuardArcSwap::new((
                     (KeyPartitioning::new(), KeyPartitioning::new().into_sparse()),
                     Lsn(0),
                 )),
@@ -4028,18 +4031,15 @@ impl Timeline {
         flags: EnumSet<CompactFlags>,
         ctx: &RequestContext,
     ) -> Result<((KeyPartitioning, SparseKeyPartitioning), Lsn), CompactionError> {
-        let Ok(mut partitioning_guard) = self.partitioning.try_lock() else {
+        let Ok(mut guard) = self.partitioning.try_write_guard() else {
             // NB: there are two callers, one is the compaction task, of which there is only one per struct Tenant and hence Timeline.
             // The other is the initdb optimization in flush_frozen_layer, used by `boostrap_timeline`, which runs before `.activate()`
             // and hence before the compaction task starts.
-            // Note that there are a third "caller" that will take the `partitioning` lock. It is `gc_compaction_split_jobs` for
-            // gc-compaction where it uses the repartition data to determine the split jobs. In the future, it might use its own
-            // heuristics, but for now, we should allow concurrent access to it and let the caller retry compaction.
             return Err(CompactionError::Other(anyhow!(
-                "repartition() called concurrently, this is rare and a retry should be fine"
+                "repartition() called concurrently"
             )));
         };
-        let ((dense_partition, sparse_partition), partition_lsn) = &*partitioning_guard;
+        let ((dense_partition, sparse_partition), partition_lsn) = &*guard.read();
         if lsn < *partition_lsn {
             return Err(CompactionError::Other(anyhow!(
                 "repartition() called with LSN going backwards, this should not happen"
@@ -4067,9 +4067,9 @@ impl Timeline {
         let sparse_partitioning = SparseKeyPartitioning {
             parts: vec![sparse_ks],
         }; // no partitioning for metadata keys for now
-        *partitioning_guard = ((dense_partitioning, sparse_partitioning), lsn);
-
-        Ok((partitioning_guard.0.clone(), partitioning_guard.1))
+        let result = ((dense_partitioning, sparse_partitioning), lsn);
+        guard.write(result.clone());
+        Ok(result)
     }
 
     // Is it time to create a new image layer for the given partition?
diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline/compaction.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline/compaction.rs
index 2042a18e96e1..06a21f6b3c42 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline/compaction.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline/compaction.rs
@@ -2146,12 +2146,7 @@ impl Timeline {
         let mut compact_jobs = Vec::new();
         // For now, we simply use the key partitioning information; we should do a more fine-grained partitioning
         // by estimating the amount of files read for a compaction job. We should also partition on LSN.
-        let ((dense_ks, sparse_ks), _) = {
-            let Ok(partition) = self.partitioning.try_lock() else {
-                bail!("failed to acquire partition lock during gc-compaction");
-            };
-            partition.clone()
-        };
+        let ((dense_ks, sparse_ks), _) = self.partitioning.read().as_ref().clone();
         // Truncate the key range to be within user specified compaction range.
         fn truncate_to(
             source_start: &Key,