Boat Ramps & Access Structures
Ramp construction, extension and repair, abutments and approach works engineered to stay usable across the reservoir's real range.
Lakes We Serve · Brush Country, TX
Ramps, piers and shoreline work on Choke Canyon Reservoir.
Nearly the entire shoreline of Choke Canyon is public land, and there is no dock counter to walk into. The work here is agency work — access structures built for a lake that can walk out hundreds of yards and come back.
Who You Are Actually Dealing With
No city or county dock office — a federal project with layered control.
Four names sit over this reservoir, and which one leads depends on whose tract your structure lands on.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation built Choke Canyon Dam as the Nueces River Project. The City of Corpus Christi operates the reservoir as part of its water supply, run in tandem with Lake Corpus Christi downstream. The Nueces River Authority holds a 20 percent share of the system's water rights and contributed to construction. And Texas Parks & Wildlife has managed recreation and the surrounding public land — Choke Canyon State Park's Calliham and South Shore units and the James E. Daughtrey Wildlife Management Area — since a 1981 fifty-year cooperative agreement among Reclamation, the city and the NRA.
The practical consequence: the water and the land around it are project property, so shoreline work is arranged with those agencies rather than pulled over a counter. Establishing which agency's tract a structure sits on, and who therefore leads the approval, is the first task on any Choke Canyon project — before a design, before a number.
Shoretech is comfortable working that way. Public and commercial marine construction is a large share of what Dave does, and the paperwork path is part of the job rather than something handed back to the owner.
The Design Problem
A shoreline that moves hundreds of yards.
TPWD rates normal fluctuation here at 10 to 20 feet — harder than most Texas reservoirs — against a conservation pool of 220.5 feet msl. The lake has been below half full since 2013, last consistently full in the early 2000s. It bottomed near 7.4 percent of capacity in April 2026, a record low that closed the Calliham and South Shore boat ramps, before July 2026 floodwater down the Frio, with the river running near 30 feet and roughly 20,000 cubic feet per second, brought it back to about 20 percent by late July.
1
Ramps that keep reaching water
A ramp built to one pool elevation is a ramp that is closed for years at a time here. Extension, staged aprons and re-grading to a realistic operating band are what keep public access open through a drought.
2
Piers and courtesy docks for public traffic
Public structures take constant load, constant abuse and periodic inspection. They get built heavier than a private dock, with hardware and connections chosen for a maintenance cycle measured in decades.
3
Brush country access and staging
Mesquite and huisache to the bank, long distances between facilities, and flooded timber, islands, submerged humps and old roadbeds under the surface. Equipment access is planned, not assumed.
4
Bank protection where the water reaches
Exposed bank that spends years dry and then takes wave energy when the lake returns is bank that moves. Stabilization is designed for both conditions, not for the day of the site visit.
Scope of Work
What Shoretech can build at Choke Canyon.
Public and agency marine construction, sized to a lake that swings 10 to 20 feet in a normal year.
Fishing Piers & Courtesy Docks
Public piers and courtesy docking built heavy for constant traffic, agency inspection and long maintenance intervals.
Bank Stabilization & Retaining Walls
Erosion control and retaining structures for exposed bank at ramps, day-use areas and facility frontage.
Precision Dredging
Restoring depth at ramps and access points, with material pumped for reuse rather than hauled out by truck.
Know the Water
The largest and deepest lake in South Texas.
About 26,000 acres on the Frio River just above its confluence with the Nueces, behind a dam substantially completed in May 1982.
Choke Canyon runs 34 river miles and reaches 95 feet at the dam, with clear to slightly stained water — more stained up the Frio channel — flooded timber, shallow brushy flats, islands, submerged humps and old roadbeds, and hydrilla and pondweed beds. It is brush-country water: mesquite and huisache to the bank, a well-known alligator population, and almost no development in sight.
When the lake is full, roughly 135 miles of shoreline are nearly all public. Choke Canyon State Park's 385-acre South Shore Unit in Live Oak County and 1,100-acre Calliham Unit in McMullen County, together with the surrounding James E. Daughtrey Wildlife Management Area, take in most of it — the town of Calliham itself was relocated about two miles south to make room for the reservoir. Private lakefront is limited to a small amount of ground near Three Rivers. The towns in the area are Three Rivers, Calliham, Tilden and George West, along with the Choke Canyon Acres subdivision near Three Rivers.
So the demand here is realistically public and agency work rather than private boathouses, and this page describes it that way on purpose. If you are managing a facility on this reservoir, that is the conversation to have.
Questions We Hear
Choke Canyon FAQ.
Where do I apply for a dock permit at Choke Canyon?
There is no single counter. The reservoir and the land around it are project property — Reclamation's project, the City of Corpus Christi's water supply operation, TPWD's recreation and wildlife management lease — so shoreline work is arranged with those agencies, and which one leads depends on whose tract the structure lands on. Identifying that first saves a great deal of wasted design.
Can I build a private boathouse here?
Almost the entire shoreline is public land, with private lakefront limited to a small amount of ground near Three Rivers. Shoretech will not design a private structure on this reservoir on the assumption that it can be authorized — that has to be established with the controlling agency first, in writing.
The ramps closed when the lake hit record low. Can that be designed around?
To a large degree, yes. Extending a ramp and re-grading its approach into a lower operating band is ordinary construction, and on a reservoir that swings 10 to 20 feet in a normal year it is the difference between a facility that works through a drought and one that does not.
Does Shoretech do public and commercial marine work?
Yes — ramps, public piers, commercial bulkheads, timber bridges and dredging are core Shoretech work. Dave is based in Trinity and travels as far as a project warrants. Call 936-662-5100 with the site and the owning agency and he will tell you what is realistic.
Nearby Water
More South Texas water.
Start With a Conversation
Planning work at Choke Canyon Reservoir?
Tell Dave which agency's ground it is, what the facility has to do, and how far the water has moved. The approval path and the design get worked out together.