Custom Boathouses
Covered slips, lifts and entertainment space within the general permit's limits — 2,500 square feet in plan view, 150 feet from shore, no second story.
Coldspring, TX · San Jacinto County
Boathouses and bulkheads for Coldspring's side of the lake.
The courthouse square is inland and historic. The shoreline is three miles up the road and busy. Shoretech builds for the second one — the Coldspring-address waterfront on the lower basin of Lake Livingston.
Two Coldsprings
A courthouse town whose waterfront lives outside it.
Coldspring proper counted 819 people in 2020 — a square, a 1918 courthouse, antique stores and more than 35 historical markers, none of them wet.
The town has been here since around 1850, rebuilt its courthouse in 1918 after the fire of 1915, and keeps the oldest continuously active Methodist church in Texas, founded in 1848. It sits about 55 miles north of Houston with Sam Houston National Forest at its shoulder — the closest county seat to the lower basin of Lake Livingston, and the natural service hub for the southwestern shore.
The water, though, is in the subdivisions that carry Coldspring addresses without touching the square. Cape Royale, the gated community about three miles north of town, is the flagship; Camilla Twin Harbors runs in platted sections minutes from the lake, Lake Oaks Landing is gated, and Paradise Cove appears among the named subdivisions on this shore. Wolf Creek Park — the TRA-operated park with a ramp on the San Jacinto County side — anchors the public access.
That split matters when you hire a contractor. A “Coldspring” project is almost never in Coldspring: it is on a TRA-controlled shoreline in one of those communities, often behind a gate, sometimes inside a POA's architectural rules, and always under the lake-wide federal permit. Knowing which layers apply to which street is half the schedule.
What Shoretech Builds Here
Lower-basin work, permitted properly.
Lake Livingston is Shoretech's home water — the base in Trinity is up the western shore — and the lower basin has been part of that work for decades.
Bulkheads & Seawalls
Galvanized steel, composite over heavy timber, and vinyl walls for frontage that faces the broad lower basin — where wave loading is a design input, not a footnote.
Docks, Piers & Swim Platforms
Fixed structures built tight to a constant-level pool, on full-dimension timber pilings driven or jetted per the permit's construction conditions.
Precision Dredging
Slip and cove restoration under TRA's separate dredging application and Nationwide Permit 19 — the lawful route on a lake where prop-washing is prohibited.
The Approval Stack
One lakebed owner, one federal permit, one county seat.
Every shoreline structure on this side of the lake answers to the same three layers, and Coldspring is the rare town where one of those layers lives on the town square.
The Trinity River Authority owns the land under the lake to elevation 131 feet msl, so the wall or boathouse you are planning stands on TRA property. The federal authorization is a general permit issued by the Corps' Galveston District and administered day to day by TRA. And because the general permit is not valid without every other required approval, the county-level matters — septic in the lake's water-quality area, county records — run through San Jacinto County's offices in Coldspring itself.
1
TRA owns the ground
Fee ownership of the lakebed to 131 feet msl, flowage easement above it. That ownership — not courtesy — is why TRA authorization comes before any bulkhead, boathouse or pier touches the water.
2
The general permit sets the numbers
USACE Galveston District General Permit SWG-2007-00720, TRA as designee: 2,500 square feet in gross plan view, 150 feet from shore or a third of a cove's width, no living quarters, enclosed storage capped at 200 square feet. Current version runs through December 31, 2028.
3
The application is a package
Vicinity map, plan-view drawing with dimensions and property-line relationships, a cross-section showing deck height and water depth at the terminal structure, the waterfront width of the lot, and mapped aquatic resources within 50 feet — filed through the Lake Livingston Project Online Portal, permits office 936-365-2292.
Around Coldspring
Where the addresses meet the water.
The square keeps the history; the shoreline keeps the boats. Both wear the same ZIP code.
Coldspring-Address Waterfront
- Cape Royale
- Cape Royale Marina & Store
- Camilla Twin Harbors
- Lake Oaks Landing
- Paradise Cove
- Wolf Creek Park — TRA-operated, 936-653-4312
In Town & Around
- The 1918 courthouse square
- 35+ historical markers
- The 1848 Methodist church
- San Jacinto County offices
- Sam Houston National Forest
Camilla Twin Harbors, Lake Oaks Landing and Paradise Cove are named San Jacinto County subdivisions on or near this shore; Cape Royale is large enough to carry a page of its own. Wolf Creek Park is run by the Trinity River Authority — the same authority that will review your permit application.
Built By Shoretech
Home-water carpentry, three counties wide.
Stained decking and a built-in bench running beside a galvanized steel bulkhead — Shoretech's own completed work on Lake Livingston, the company's home water.
The record on this lake is not borrowed: more than 40 years of marine construction, over 250 boathouses and over 850 shoreline and marine projects, with Lake Livingston the home water at the middle of it. The precision dredge has worked slips and shorelines here, and the boathouse photography across this site is Shoretech's own.
From the base in Trinity, the run to the Coldspring shore is a working commute, not an expedition — near enough for a same-week site visit, far enough that the crew arrives with everything on the trailer.
1918
Year the courthouse on the square was rebuilt
~3 mi
From the square to Cape Royale's gate
131′
Elevation TRA owns the lakebed to, ft msl
150′
Maximum reach of a structure into the water
Questions We Hear
Coldspring FAQ.
Is Coldspring itself on Lake Livingston?
No — and that is part of its charm. The square, the 1918 courthouse and the town's 35-plus historical markers sit inland, next to Sam Houston National Forest, about 55 miles north of Houston. The waterfront wears Coldspring addresses without touching the square: Cape Royale about three miles north of town, Camilla Twin Harbors and Lake Oaks Landing among the named subdivisions, and Wolf Creek Park, the TRA-operated park on this side of the lake. When someone says Coldspring waterfront, they almost always mean one of those.
Who approves a boathouse or bulkhead on a Coldspring shoreline?
The Trinity River Authority. TRA holds fee ownership of the lakebed up to elevation 131 feet msl, which puts shoreline structures on TRA property, and the work is federally authorized under USACE Galveston District General Permit SWG-2007-00720 with TRA administering it as the Corps' designee. Applications go through the Lake Livingston Project Online Portal and the permits office at 936-365-2292 — and the general permit is explicit that it is not valid without every other required authorization, which for San Jacinto County matters like septic in the lake's water-quality area means dealing with the county seat. That seat is Coldspring.
How big can a boathouse be here?
The general permit caps a structure at 2,500 square feet in gross plan view — counting roof overhangs, walkways, lifts and platforms — and at 150 feet out into the water, or one-third of the width of a cove or channel, whichever governs. No living quarters, no covered second story, and any enclosed space must be clearly non-inhabitable storage of 200 square feet or less. A replacement boathouse cannot go in until the unserviceable one it replaces has come out.
Can Shoretech dredge out my boat slip or cove?
Yes, but not under the general permit — dredging on Lake Livingston runs on a separate TRA Dredging Application under Nationwide Permit 19, and prop-washing is expressly prohibited. Shoretech's precision dredge pumps material for reuse as backfill rather than hauling it off by truck, and the dredging application gets prepared alongside the bulkhead or boathouse design so the approvals move together.
What decides the cost of a bulkhead on this end of the lake?
Exposure, ground and access before anything else. A wall facing the broad lower basin carries a different wave load than one tucked into a cove; soils and the stump rules — cut portions must come out of the lake, and root balls cannot be excavated — shape the site work; water depth at the end of the structure sets pile lengths; and the material choice runs from heavy timber to galvanized steel to composite. Permitting adds design requirements of its own. None of that reduces to a number over the phone, which is why a site visit comes first.
Along This Shore
Neighbours on the same water.
Start With The Address
Planning shoreline work near Coldspring?
Tell Dave which community your frontage is in, what stands on it now, and whether a gate or a POA sits between the road and the water. The TRA application, the drawings and the build get handled as one project.