Covered Piers & Docks
Fixed piers and covered slips built tight to constant-level water — with the footprint set by the cove-width rule as often as by the 150-foot line on this side of the lake.
Point Blank, TX · San Jacinto County
Piers, boathouses and bulkheads on the Point Blank shore.
A town of 643 at the west end of the US 190 crossing, where the lake necks down and the county line changes what the paperwork looks like.
The West Landing
A governor's plantation, a farm hamlet, then a lake town.
Point Blank sits at the US 190 / SH 156 junction on the west shore, about 85 miles north of Houston — Onalaska's twin across the causeway, on the San Jacinto County side.
The history here is unusually concrete. George T. Wood, governor of Texas, ran a plantation on this ground from 1839; he is buried in the local Robinson Cemetery under a state monument erected in 1911, and the lakefront subdivision of Governor's Point — with its own property owners association — carries his name. The town stayed a farm hamlet of roughly 75 people as late as 1925 and only became a lake town when the reservoir filled in the late 1960s. The 2020 census counted 643 residents, most of them owners rather than renters — a settled, largely retirement shoreline.
The water here is the narrows at the 190 crossing — open mid-lake water within sight of quieter coves on the San Jacinto County side. Holiday Villages, the gated community on US 190 at the Point Blank side of the crossing, keeps its own owners association, boat launch and fishing piers. That mix — POA gate, cove geometry, mid-lake exposure — is the actual brief for most structures built here.
What Shoretech Builds Here
Cove structures, crossing structures.
The 190 neck gives Point Blank both kinds of water. The structure should know which one it is standing in.
Boathouses & Lifts
Covered slips, lifts and storage inside the general permit's envelope: 2,500 square feet in plan view with overhangs counted, storage capped at 200 square feet, no covered second story.
Shoreline Reinforcement
Heavy timber, galvanized steel, vinyl and FRP composite walls for banks that take the same waterline loading year-round on a lake that is held at pool.
Slip & Cove Dredging
Depth restored under Nationwide Permit 19 with the TRA dredging application — separate from the general permit, which authorizes no new dredging and prohibits prop-washing outright.
Building on the San Jacinto Side
Three things that are different at Point Blank.
The TRA authorization works the same on every shore of Lake Livingston. What changes at Point Blank is the geography in front of the lot and the county behind it — and both show up in the design before the first piling goes in.
Shoretech is based in Trinity, up the west side of this same lake, and has spent more than 40 years building on water like this — over 250 boathouses and 850-plus projects, with Lake Livingston work in the portfolio from entertainment boathouses to timber shoreline walls.
1
The neck, and the coves off it
A pier in a cove is governed by the one-third-of-width rule; a structure facing the open reach is designed for the chop a 31-mile lake can put in front of it. Two lots a half mile apart can need genuinely different structures.
2
Construction conditions with teeth
Under the general permit, pilings are jetted with hand-held nozzles or driven — nothing else. Stumps in the footprint are sawed or sheared with TRA permission and hauled out; root-ball excavation is not authorized, and prop-washing is prohibited. Equipment and method are part of compliance, not just preference.
3
The county line in the paperwork
Cross the causeway from Onalaska and the county changes: septic and OSSF for a Point Blank lot run through San Jacinto County, with TRA regulating OSSF in the restricted area around the lake. TRA publishes an online jurisdiction map for checking a specific parcel — the five-minute step that prevents the six-week surprise.
The Permitting Reality
One general permit covers this shore — through the end of 2028.
Trinity River Authority — Lake Livingston permits office, 936-365-2292 · Lake Livingston Project online portal on MyGovernmentOnline.
Shoreline structures at Point Blank are authorized under USACE Galveston District General Permit SWG-2007-00720, administered locally with the Trinity River Authority as the Corps designee — the permit names San Jacinto County alongside Polk, Walker and Trinity, and the current version runs through December 31, 2028. The underlying reason is ownership: TRA holds the lakebed in fee up to elevation 131 feet, so the water end of every structure on this shore stands on TRA ground.
Practical consequences follow. The application needs real drawings — plan view, cross-section with deck height and water depth, waterfront width — and when a property sells, the authorization transfers to the new owner with a copy to the Galveston District. Inside Governor's Point or Holiday Villages, POA review and gate logistics ride on top, and Shoretech folds all of it into one schedule. Whether a structure is even buildable on your frontage is usually answerable in one phone call and one look at the TRA jurisdiction map.
Around Point Blank
Small town, named shoreline.
A town this size is really its communities and its crossing.
Named communities
- Governor's Point
- Holiday Villages
Landmarks & wayfinding
- US 190 / SH 156 junction
- The 190 causeway to Onalaska
- Robinson Cemetery & the Wood monument
- SH 156 south toward Coldspring
Governor's Point keeps its own POA on the lakefront that carries the governor's name; Holiday Villages sits on US 190 at the Point Blank side of the lake crossing with its own owners association, launch and piers. Down SH 156, the lower-lake communities around Coldspring — Cape Royale among them — are a separate stretch of shore with the same TRA authorization over the waterline.
643
Residents at the 2020 census
1839
Governor Wood's plantation established
131′
Elevation TRA owns the lakebed to, ft msl
2028
General permit runs through December 31
Questions We Hear
Point Blank FAQ.
Do Point Blank lots need the same permits as the Polk County side?
At the waterline, yes — the TRA program is lake-wide. The Trinity River Authority owns the lakebed to elevation 131 feet on every shore, and USACE General Permit SWG-2007-00720 is expressly valid in San Jacinto County along with Polk, Walker and Trinity. What changes across the 190 bridge is the county layer: septic and OSSF matters for a Point Blank lot run through San Jacinto County, not Polk, with TRA also regulating OSSF in the restricted area around the lake. TRA publishes an online jurisdiction map that settles whether a parcel falls under its authority — Shoretech checks it before anything is drawn.
How far out can a pier extend at Point Blank?
The general permit allows 150 feet out into the water, or one third of the width to the opposite shore of a cove, channel or creek — whichever governs on your frontage. Around Point Blank that second rule earns its keep: the lake necks down at the US 190 crossing, and in the quieter coves a third of the width arrives well before 150 feet does. Total size is capped at 2,500 square feet in gross plan view including roof overhangs, with no living quarters and no covered second story.
There are stumps where the boathouse would go. Can they be cleared?
Only the way the permit says. Stumps in the footprint may be sawed or sheared mechanically with TRA permission, and every cut portion has to come out of the lake — but excavating the root ball is not authorized, and neither is prop-washing. Pilings must be jetted in with hand-held nozzles or driven. These are conditions that reward a contractor who has worked this lake for decades and owns the right equipment.
Has Shoretech actually built on this part of the lake?
Yes. Lake Livingston is home water — Shoretech is based in Trinity, up the west side of the same lake, and its completed Livingston projects include entertainment boathouses and shoreline bulkheads along with docks, piers and dredging. The record across more than 40 years runs past 250 boathouses and 850 projects, and Point Blank sits minutes down the shoreline from the home base.
What decides project cost on the Point Blank shore?
The variables the site hands you. Sheltered cove or open water at the mid-lake neck, water depth where the terminal structure lands, wall height and soils for a bulkhead, material — heavy timber, galvanized steel, vinyl or FRP composite — gate access, and the permit conditions on pilings and stump clearing. Every one of those moves the number, so Shoretech prices from a site visit rather than an aerial photo. The phone call with Dave is where it starts.
Same Lake, Next Door
Across the causeway and down the shore.
Start With the Cove or the Crossing
Planning waterfront work at Point Blank?
Tell Dave whether the lot faces a cove or the open neck, what is standing at the waterline now, and which gate the crew will be coming through. The TRA application, the county layer and the POA review travel together — and the builder is minutes up the lake, not hours down the highway.