The Retaining Wall

With the decision to begin making improvements on the lake property and our choice of Larry Wade to construct our project, it was finally time to put a shovel (or in our case, a trackhoe bucket) in the ground and spend some money.

The week before Christmas, Larry floated a trackhoe onto the worksite using a barge and began placing vertical sheets of steel into the ground about 10 feet offshore.  About 10 feet behind the retaining wall he drove steel pipe into the ground and welded the entire structure together.  The steel and dirt behind the wall will easily withstand the force of waves directed against it.  It is the pulling action of the waves after they have crashed into the wall and begin to flow back out that is the force to be reckoned with. 

He used the bucket of the trackhoe to scoop dirt from the bottom of the lake about 30 feet offshore and place it behind the steel sheets.  The managers of the lake insist that contractors take fill dirt from the lake to make its volume slightly larger.  After all, since the dirt used to be onshore as part of the property and was eroded away and into the lake, it makes sense to put it back where it originally came from.

The trees on the left front of this picture had lake water lapping at their exposed roots just a week before.

Here is another photograph from the south looking north.  The tree trunk on the far right was at the eroded shoreline before the wall was in place.

Here is the completed wall with the fill dirt somewhat leveled.  Our property begins at the intersecting walls near the center of this photo.  As the dirt continues to dry out it will settle about 6 inches and will need to be further leveled.  Eventually we will add a sidewalk along the wall and steps leading down into the lake.  We will also add a sprinkler system, top soil, and sod to complete the lawn.