Seawalls & Retaining Walls
Engineered seawalls and retaining walls for steep, actively eroding riverbank — tiebacks, drainage and a footing that is not left exposed to wake.
Lakes We Serve · LA
Seawalls, retaining walls and docks on Cane River Lake.
A narrow channel with steep, actively cutting banks makes this a seawall waterfront before it is a boathouse waterfront — and the Cane River Waterway Commission regulates construction into the water through its own ordinances.
The Rules Here Are Local
One commission, its own ordinances, no river authority.
The Cane River Waterway Commission governs the Cane River Waterway District, a parish-wide political subdivision created in 1982.
The district owns and operates the Cane River Dam and regulates construction into the waterway by ordinance rather than through a state river authority. Ordinance No. 4 of 1997 governs construction into Cane River, and it is the document to ask the commission about before designing anything that touches the water. The City of Natchitoches governs the downtown riverbank, and the Corps of Engineers is involved in water withdrawals and Clean Water Act impacts.
One ordinance decides a question owners ask constantly: Ordinance No. 5 of 1997 prohibits habitable dwellings built over the water. That rules out living quarters on a boathouse here. Covered slips, decks, walkways and storage are a different conversation from a room you sleep in, and the distinction is worth settling with the commission before a designer starts drawing.
What We Build Here
Bank first, structure second.
On a 300-foot-wide channel with cutting banks, the wall is usually the project and the dock is what the wall makes possible.
Boat Docks & Piers
Docks, piers and covered slips sized to a narrow channel and to a pool that is only allowed to move a few feet.
Municipal & Commercial Riverbank Work
Public riverbank stabilization and commercial waterfront structures of the kind downtown Natchitoches has been putting out for bid.
Precision Dredging
Slip and approach dredging in a shallow channel, with material pumped for reuse instead of hauled off by truck.
Three Local Facts That Change a Design
Erosion is the governing condition on this water.
The commission's own rules make that plain, and they are the best guide to how a structure here should be built.
1
Wake surfing is banned outright
The commission prohibits it as an erosion and navigation problem on a channel this narrow. On a waterway where the governing body regulates wake itself, a seawall footing that ignores wake energy is a short-lived seawall.
2
Low water exposes wall foundations
The commission has closed the lake in low water because boat wakes were striking exposed seawall foundations. That is a direct instruction about how deep a wall's toe protection needs to go.
3
The pool is held in a narrow band
Pool stage is 98.0 feet MSL, and under Ordinance 2 of 2011 the commission closes the lake to boating below 96.0 or above 99.0. At or below 96.0 the north end, from the national fish hatchery outflow up to the dam, also goes no-wake.
Know the Water
Not a reservoir at all — the Red River's own abandoned channel.
Roughly 1,350 acres in a 34-to-35-mile ribbon through Natchitoches Parish.
Cane River Lake is what the Red River left behind when it straightened itself around Grand Ecore after the Great Raft was cleared in the 1830s. The old main channel was later dammed at both ends to hold water, and what remains averages roughly 300 feet wide — with reaches under 200 feet — about eight feet deep on average and 15 at the most, running straight through downtown Natchitoches and on past plantation country.
That geometry is why retaining walls and seawalls define this waterfront far more than boathouses do. A 1,400-foot seawall and riverbank stabilization project along Williams Avenue in downtown Natchitoches went out for bid in 2025, which is a fair indication of the scale of the erosion problem on the public bank as well as the private one.
Drought dropped the lake to 95.5 feet MSL in late 2023 — below the commission's own closure threshold — and the commission has pursued a filtered pumping system to draw make-up water from the Red River in response. Natchitoches and its National Historic Landmark district, along with Natchez, Bermuda, Melrose, Isle Brevelle, Cloutierville, Derry and Gorum, all sit along this water.
Questions We Hear
Cane River Lake FAQ.
Can I build a boathouse with a room to stay in?
No. Ordinance No. 5 of 1997 prohibits habitable dwellings built over the water on Cane River. Covered slips, decks, storage and walkways are a separate question — take the specifics to the Cane River Waterway Commission before design.
Who permits construction into the water?
The Cane River Waterway Commission regulates construction into the river through its own ordinances — Ordinance No. 4 of 1997 is the one titled for it. The City of Natchitoches governs the downtown riverbank, and the Corps of Engineers is involved in water withdrawals and Clean Water Act impacts.
My bank is caving. Is that normal here?
It is the defining problem on this waterway. The channel is narrow, the banks are steep and actively cutting, and the commission regulates boat wake partly for that reason. A properly designed retaining wall or seawall — with drainage and toe protection, not just a face — is the usual answer.
How much does the water level move?
Not much, by design. Pool stage is 98.0 MSL and the commission closes the lake to boating below 96.0 or above 99.0. The exception is drought: the lake reached 95.5 MSL in late 2023, which exposed structures that had never been out of the water.
Does Shoretech work in Natchitoches Parish?
Western Louisiana is part of Shoretech's service area and Dave travels as far as a project warrants. Call 936-662-5100 to talk through the bank, the ordinance questions and what you want the finished waterfront to do.
Nearby Water
More Louisiana waterfronts.
Start With a Conversation
Losing bank on Cane River?
Tell Dave how far the bank has moved, what is already built on it, and how the water sits against it. The wall gets designed to that, and the rest follows.