Steel & Heavy Timber Bulkheads
Engineered shoreline reinforcement at the water line, sized to a 522-to-537-foot operating range rather than to the day of the site visit — and submitted as a design the Corps reviews.
The Colony · Denton County · Lewisville Lake
Seawalls and shoreline reinforcement in The Colony.
Twenty-three miles of west-facing bank on the lower lake, from the Tribute peninsula down to the dam end — and one contractor the Corps of Engineers currently permits to reinforce any of it.
The East Shore
A city that was founded on this shoreline, not near it.
Fox & Jacobs bought about 2,500 acres “on the eastern shore of Lake Lewisville and south of Eastvale” in 1973. Everything here follows from that.
The Colony runs along the east side of the lower half of Lewisville Lake, from the SH 121 area at the south end up to the Hackberry Creek peninsula at the north, and the city claims 23 miles of shoreline along that edge. Two peninsulas define the waterfront: The Tribute at the north end, pushing northwest into open water, and Stewart Peninsula immediately south of it, wrapping the Stewart Creek arm.
Stewart Creek enters the lake through the middle of the city, with FM 423 crossing it just south of Eastvale Park. South of the creek the bank runs down past Ridgepointe Park toward East Hill Park and Safe Harbor Pier 121 near the dam end. Hidden Cove Park & Marina is operated by The Colony but sits physically detached to the north, out on the Hackberry Creek peninsula with a Frisco address — so a resident of The Colony proper does not live on that water.
What matters structurally is that this is a west-facing bank looking across the widest open water of the lower lake, and an open bank rather than a wooded one. The city's own Shoreline Trail runs three and a third miles behind a fringe of scrubby shrubs with, as the city puts it, very limited shade, crossing several creeks on bridges. The sheltered water is behind the point — the Stewart Creek arm and the inner peninsula at Hidden Cove. Which side of that line a property sits on changes what a wall has to do.
Documented, Not Theoretical
The city has been rebuilding its own shoreline in rock.
The Colony calls it “the years-long problem of shoreline erosion.” Those are the city's words, about this bank.
The work covers the entire north shoreline of Stewart Creek Park, from the point at the far west end of the park east to the tree line. It was awarded to Stoic Civil Construction in November 2023; the start slipped through a rainy spring and then through the summer 2024 flooding on Lewisville Lake, and it was underway as of the city's October 2024 notice.
The method is one any marine contractor would recognize. Cut the existing shoreline back to where it is stable. Fill with large rock. Add several stepped water-access points, plus a section of hydro turf for launching kayaks and paddleboards. That is a rock-revetment reconstruction, procured by a city, on the stretch of its own shore that faces the widest water.
It is worth being precise about what that does and does not mean for a private owner. Stewart Creek Park is Corps lease land the city operates, and the city was acting as the lessee. It does not set a precedent for a lot on Stewart Peninsula or at The Tribute. What it does establish is that erosion on this side of the lake is real enough that the public landholder spent money engineering an answer to it.
The Permission That Matters
Why a bulkhead here is a different conversation than on any other lake.
The Corps closed Lewisville Lake to new shoreline reinforcement, then made exactly one exception.
1
Why it was closed
For years bulkheads on this lake were built by contractors who did not know how to build them, and they failed — walls leaned, backfill washed out, sections went into the water. The Corps stopped permitting shoreline reinforcement here altogether rather than keep cleaning up after work that was never engineered.
2
How the exception happened
A property owner on this lake pushed for one. Permitting that single job took a year. The Corps reviewed the design, Dave built the wall, and they came out and inspected the finished work. Rather than reopening the lake to everyone, they authorized one contractor — a reviewed design from a builder whose wall they had already seen standing.
3
What it covers, and until when
Steel and heavy timber shoreline reinforcement, through the end of December 2027, renewable. It does not extend to new boathouses or docks — the Corps is not permitting those anywhere on Lewisville — and it does not make approval of your own bank automatic. It makes a wall possible where otherwise there is no route at all.
What Shoretech Builds Here
Services matched to what The Colony's shoreline allows.
Reinforcement first, because that is the work only Shoretech is currently permitted to do on this lake. New docks and boathouses are deliberately not on this list.
Retaining Walls & Erosion Control
Slope work above the federal boundary on the ground you genuinely own — steel, vinyl, FRP composite or heavy timber, chosen for the soil and the exposure rather than the catalog.
Boathouse Repair & Rebuild
Restoring an inherited, permitted structure — substructure, decking, roof, lift and lighting — without moving it. Repair and rebuild only; new structures are not being permitted at Lewisville.
HOA, Marina & Municipal Shoreline
Common shoreline along the trail corridor, marina frontage and public bank, where the client is an organization holding its own agreement with the Corps.
Around The Colony
Two peninsulas, three Corps lease parks and a 3.32-mile trail.
Access is the quiet constraint here — the Shoreline Trail is ten-foot decomposed granite, a walking surface rather than a haul road, so equipment stages from the park entrances.
Waterfront Neighborhoods
- The Tribute
- Stonehaven at The Tribute
- Stewart Peninsula
- Westport Lakeview Villas
- Legends
- Eastvale
- The T's
Parks, Trails & Marinas
- Stewart Creek Park (three-lane ramp)
- The Colony Shoreline Trail
- Ridgepointe Park
- Eastvale Park (one-lane ramp)
- Scout Park
- Hidden Cove Park & Marina
- Safe Harbor Pier 121 Marina
- Tribute Shoreline Trail
- Stewart Peninsula Golf Course
- The Golf Clubs at The Tribute
Shoretech is based in Trinity and travels as far as a project warrants. Dave looks at the ground, the approach and the water before anything is drawn — and on Lewisville, well before anything is submitted.
Questions We Hear
The Colony shoreline FAQ.
The city rebuilt the Stewart Creek Park shoreline in rock. Can I do that on my lot?
Not on the same footing, no. Stewart Creek Park is Corps of Engineers lease land that the city operates, and that project was procured by the city under its lease. A private bank at the water is a Corps question first and a design question second. What has changed for private owners is narrower and more useful: after years of refusing new shoreline reinforcement on this lake, the Corps authorized one contractor to build it. Shoretech is currently that contractor, for steel and heavy timber bulkheads, through the end of December 2027.
Can I add a boat dock or a boathouse in The Colony?
Not a new one. The Corps says it directly for the whole reservoir: they are not allowing the construction of new boat houses or docks at Lewisville Lake. The only route to a private structure is buying a property that already carries a permitted one — currently $35 for five years, not transferable, and it cannot be relocated. If that is what you are buying, have the substructure and the lift inspected before closing rather than after. Slips are otherwise a marina question here: Safe Harbor Pier 121 on East Hill Park Road and Hidden Cove both berth boats.
Where does my property actually end on this side of the lake?
Lower than most owners assume. The Corps holds fee title to the land inundated at 522 feet msl plus a band above it, marked with concrete monuments carrying brass caps, and a perpetual flowage easement to 537 feet. The uncontrolled spillway sits at 532, and Texas Parks and Wildlife puts normal annual fluctuation at four to eight feet. Requests for anything on Government or flowage-easement ground go in writing, with plans and a plat in duplicate, to the Natural Resource Manager at the Trinity Regional Project Office, 1801 N. Mill St, Lewisville, 469-645-9100.
Does Shoretech work in The Colony?
Yes. Shoretech is based in Trinity, Texas, and Dave travels as far as a project warrants across Texas and western Louisiana. The Corps authorization on Lewisville Lake makes this water a standing part of the schedule rather than an outlier. Call 936-662-5100 and describe the bank, the access from the street and what the water does to it when the weather comes in across the open lake.
Same Water, Other Shores
Elsewhere on Lewisville Lake.
Start With the Bank
Planning shoreline work in The Colony?
Tell Dave where you are on the shore — Tribute peninsula, Stewart Peninsula, down toward Ridgepointe — how the bank is failing, and where the Corps monuments fall on your survey. The design follows from there, and so does an honest answer about what this lake will permit.