Retaining Walls & Bulkheads
Full wall systems on private ground above the boundary — galvanized steel, vinyl, FRP composite or heavy timber, with the tiebacks, deadmen and drainage designed behind the face rather than added later.
Lakes We Serve · TX
Waterfront construction at Lake Lavon.
A listing that says "lake access" is not telling you what you can build. At Lavon the Corps owns the band of land around the water — so the buildable work sits on your side of the federal line, and it is mostly wall work.
The Line That Matters
Lake access is not dock access at Lavon.
Collin County is growing hard against this reservoir, and the marketing has gotten ahead of the permitting.
Lake Lavon is a 21,000-acre reservoir on the East Fork of the Trinity River in Collin County, ringed by Wylie, Lavon, Princeton, Nevada, Copeville, Farmersville, St. Paul and Lucas. The North Texas Municipal Water District is the water-supply beneficiary for its member cities, but the shoreline itself is controlled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District, out of the Lavon Lake Office at 3375 Skyview Drive in Wylie — 972-442-3141.
The Corps' guidance for Lavon lists as prohibited on public land: private exclusive use of any kind, mooring a boat or any other floating device, and constructing buildings, roads, improved pathways or any other facilities. That is the whole residential dock question answered in one sentence. Homes near Lavon sell on the view and the proximity; they do not come with a permitted place to tie a boat.
What that leaves is substantial and often urgent: shoreline retaining walls, bulkheads and erosion control on the private ground above the federal boundary, where a decade of wave action and a fluctuating pool have taken the bank back toward the house. That is the work Shoretech is available for on this lake.
What We Build Here
Wall work, slope work, and the structures that are allowed.
Scoped to Lavon's permitting rather than to a generic dock-builder menu.
Erosion & Slope Control
Stopping bank loss before it reaches the foundation — grading, armoring and drainage worked out as one system for a shoreline that fluctuates.
Crossings & Access Structures
Pile-supported crossings over the creeks and draws feeding the East Fork arm, built on private land for real flood conditions.
Commercial & Public Work
Bank protection, intakes and heavy waterfront structures for districts, municipalities and organizations holding their own federal approvals.
The Flowage-Easement Exception
One narrow door, with conditions.
Lavon's rules are not a flat no everywhere. If you privately own ground that lies under the flowage easement, there is a path — and it has three hard edges you have to design to.
1
Below elevation 509
On privately owned flowage-easement land below elevation 509, most structures other than habitable buildings can be approved. Conservation pool sits at 492, so that band is where the question actually gets asked.
2
Prior written approval
Approval has to come in writing from the District Engineer before construction — not after, and not on the strength of a neighbor's structure. That timeline belongs in the project schedule from the start.
3
No fill above the contour
No fill that raises land above the easement contour. It rules out the easy answer of trucking in dirt to solve a grade problem, and it makes the wall and drainage design carry the load instead.
Know the Water
Timber arms, lotus bays, and a reservoir that doubled.
Lavon carries moderate, greenish water with standing timber in the East Fork arm and in the Sister Grove and Pilot Grove creek arms. Water willow and American lotus fill the shallow bays and coves — good for the fishery, and a reliable sign of the soft, shallow margins that make bank stabilization a recurring need here.
Conservation pool is 492 feet msl and the flowage easement generally runs to elevation 509. The reservoir was roughly doubled in size by a modification in the 1970s to meet regional water demand, which is why the shoreline reads as newer and less settled than the age of the original impoundment suggests.
Questions We Hear
Lake Lavon FAQ.
My listing said lake access. Can I build a dock?
Not on the Corps land that surrounds the lake. Private exclusive use, mooring a boat or floating device, and constructing facilities are all prohibited there. "Lake access" in a Collin County listing generally means proximity and a view, not a permitted place to keep a boat.
What about the flowage easement I keep hearing about?
If you privately own ground under the flowage easement below elevation 509, most structures other than habitable buildings can be approved — but only with prior written approval from the District Engineer, and with no fill that raises land above the easement contour. Get the approval question settled before drawings are finished.
My bank is washing away. Is that a Corps issue or mine?
It depends entirely on which side of the boundary the erosion is happening. Work on your own ground above the line is ordinary private construction; work below it is not. A survey that locates the boundary is the first cost of the project, not an optional extra.
Is Lake Lavon inside Shoretech's service area?
Yes. Dave travels as far as a project warrants across Texas and western Louisiana. Call 936-662-5100 to talk through the bank, the boundary and the scope.
Nearby Water
More lakes in this region.
Start With a Conversation
Planning a project at Lake Lavon?
Tell Dave what the bank is doing, where the federal boundary falls, and what you need the ground to hold. The design follows from there.