diff --git a/src/vppinfra/bihash_template.c b/src/vppinfra/bihash_template.c
index 2a5a5cd..56c410b 100644
--- a/src/vppinfra/bihash_template.c
+++ b/src/vppinfra/bihash_template.c
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@
   vec_validate_aligned (h->buckets, nbuckets - 1, CLIB_CACHE_LINE_BYTES);
   h->writer_lock = clib_mem_alloc_aligned (CLIB_CACHE_LINE_BYTES,
 					   CLIB_CACHE_LINE_BYTES);
+  h->writer_lock[0] = 0;
 
   for (i = 0; i < nbuckets; i++)
     BV (clib_bihash_reset_cache) (h->buckets + i);