Bank Stabilization & Erosion Control
Retaining walls, revetment and shoreline protection for banks that are actively cutting back — the largest identified need on this lake.
Lakes We Serve · Jackson County, TX
Shoreline and public marine construction on Lake Texana.
Texana is not a private-dock lake, and no honest contractor should sell you one here. The Authority owns the ring of land around the water. The work that exists is public, institutional, and mostly about holding the bank in place.
The Straight Answer
One authority owns the lake, the dam and the land around it.
There is no county dock counter at Lake Texana — the Lavaca-Navidad River Authority is both the landowner and the permitting body.
LNRA owns, operates and manages Lake Texana, Palmetto Bend Dam, roughly 7,000 acres of surrounding project land and 125 miles of shoreline, along with the lake's ten boat ramps and project roads. It was originally a federal Bureau of Reclamation project; the repayment obligations were settled around 2000 and the project passed to the Texas Water Development Board and LNRA. Since 2012, when TPWD gave up the lease, LNRA has also run the former state park as Texana Park and Campground.
That ownership is the whole story for a waterfront owner. As a condition of the project's conveyance, LNRA is required to prohibit private or exclusive use of those project lands, and public access is deliberately confined to designated points — the ten boat ramps, Texana Park and Campground, the Brackenridge Recreation Complex, Oscar Cherry Park and the spillway fishing area. A private boathouse in front of a private lot is not the market this lake has.
LNRA's Land Resources Management Plan does contemplate special permits or licenses for facilities such as boat docks and fishing piers — but only where appropriate, and only under strict specifications, conditions and LNRA inspection, weighing location, appearance, structural integrity, lighting and public safety. That language comes from the Authority's published land plan, so the current process, forms and fees are worth confirming with LNRA at its headquarters on FM 3131 near Edna before anyone designs anything.
What Shoretech Can Do Here
Public, institutional and bank work.
The scope on Texana is shaped by who owns the shoreline — and there is real work in it.
Boat Ramps & Public Access Structures
Ramp construction, extension and repair, plus abutments, approach works and access structures built for agency and public use.
Fishing Piers & Courtesy Docks
Public piers and courtesy docking built to hold up under constant public traffic and inspection, where the Authority permits them.
Precision Dredging
Restoring depth at ramps and access points where shoaling and hyacinth have taken the usable water away.
Where the Need Is
The bank is the problem on Texana.
LNRA's own land plan documents active shoreline erosion on the wind-exposed east and west banks, and erosion-control work aimed at stopping the bank from cutting into its haylands, recreation facilities, cultural sites and neighboring property. That is a construction problem with a known answer.
1
Wind-driven bank loss
Long fetch across open water on a shallow lake puts sustained wave energy on the east and west banks. Stabilization has to be designed for that exposure, not for a sheltered cove.
2
Protecting what sits behind the bank
Haylands, park facilities, cultural sites and adjoining private property are what the erosion is eating toward. The wall or revetment is the cheap part; losing the ground behind it is not.
3
Access that still reaches water
TPWD rates the swing here as high and frequent, 5 to 10 feet, on a lake that is mostly shallow. That moves the effective shoreline a long way and takes ramps and piers out of service unless they were built for the range.
4
Submerged timber and stumps
Much of Texana still holds standing and fallen timber from the river bottom it flooded. Anything driven, anchored or dredged here plans around what is already down there.
Know the Water
A shallow, timber-filled Navidad reservoir.
About 9,700 acres eight miles east of Edna, behind Palmetto Bend Dam — built by the Bureau of Reclamation, completed in 1979 and impounded in 1980.
Texana reaches 58 feet at its deepest by the dam but is mostly shallow, with stained to muddy water, submerged timber and stumps through much of it, and heavy expanses of water hyacinth; giant salvinia is confined to the Sandy Creek arm. Conservation pool is about 44 feet msl. The drowned townsite of Texana, settled in 1832, lies underneath it.
The towns around it are Edna, Ganado, Lolita, Vanderbilt and La Ward, with Victoria and Port Lavaca as the regional cities. On-lake destinations are Texana Park and Campground and the Brackenridge Recreation Complex. If you own or manage property on this shoreline — or you are an agency, a district or a landowner next door watching a bank move — that is the conversation Shoretech can help with.
Questions We Hear
Lake Texana FAQ.
Can I build a private boathouse on Lake Texana?
Realistically, no. LNRA owns the land around the water and, as a condition of the project's conveyance, is required to prohibit private or exclusive use of it. Public access is confined to designated points. If you have been told otherwise, get it in writing from the Authority before spending money — and Shoretech will not design a structure on the assumption that it will be allowed.
So what does LNRA permit?
Its Land Resources Management Plan contemplates special permits or licenses for facilities such as boat docks and fishing piers where appropriate, under strict specifications, conditions and Authority inspection — with location, appearance, structural integrity, lighting and public safety all weighed. That language is from the published plan; current practice, forms and fees should be confirmed directly with LNRA near Edna.
We manage land next to the lake and the bank is failing. Can that be fixed?
Usually, yes, and that is the most common real need here. Stabilization on private ground behind the project boundary does not depend on a lake permit the way an in-water structure does. The design starts with fetch, wave exposure, soil and how far the bank has already moved.
Does Shoretech take agency and public work?
Yes — ramps, public piers, access structures, commercial bulkheads and dredging are core Shoretech work, and Dave travels as far as a project warrants. Call 936-662-5100 and describe the site and the owning agency.
Nearby Water
More water in this part of Texas.
Start With a Conversation
Have a shoreline problem at Lake Texana?
Tell Dave whose ground it is, how the bank is behaving, and what the structure has to do. He will tell you plainly whether it is buildable here.