By Peter Clayton

Our community has almost 30 lakes but few with any bulkhead, however six property owners along Marshside Drive have changed that. All the properties back onto the lake on the left side of #14 and all were experiencing erosion – gradual but persistent.

Three years ago the idea of bulkheading was explored, but pricing reflected the full book most marine construction firms still had from Hurricane Matthew. Then an owner, Steve Otwell, had a very favorable experience with a local firm based on the island – LaConte Marine Construction – and proposals were sought.

Ryan LaConte, the company’s principal, wanted to generate business with residents, the HOA and possibly the Club and his proposal certainly got our attention. After meetings to discuss the specifics and answer questions, all six owners agreed to join in, including a German-based owner of an undeveloped lot which became quite important as it was the staging area for materials, equipment and vehicles.

Next, we met with Bob Buzza, chair of the ARB, who agreed to consider our proposal as a single project since we were all using the same contractor and doing the same thing – our discussions during that approval process were most helpful.

We also had to get a finding from the St. Johns River Water Management District that the project did not require a permit – Everett Frye at the District explained their concerns and objectives while assisting with our application.
In the process we learned that the Club owns the property at either end of ours, specifically, a 13’ piece on the north end up to the culvert where swale runoff empties into the lake, and, about 120’ on the south end running to the 14th gold tee box. We showed Mary Claire, the Club Manager, our plans and she requested a proposal from LaConte for those sections ultimately contracting to do the north portion and about 50’ of the south.

By early March, approvals had been obtained, contracts signed and materials ordered. The next stage was clearing the empty lot so as to allow access and storage space – a big advantage in minimizing any adverse impact on neighbors and local traffic. The initial work of driving pilings into the lake bed utilized a generator on a small floating platform which powered a water jet with a variety of hammers finalizing the effort. This was the most time consuming job because of depth of hardpan (compacted soil containing clay) under the surface of the lake bottom.

Once the pilings were in, boards called “walers” were attached at water level and at the top of each piling running parallel to the water – they served as the base for the cribs, vertical boards running parallel to the pilings. Then a rot-resistant fabric was nailed along the length of the top waler which would further protect the crib boards. Fill dirt/sand was then used to close the gap between the bulkhead and existing lake bank. The final piece of carpentry was the installation of cap boards which ran along the top of the pilings – all was completed in mid-May.

The resulting look was most handsome, augmented by the continuous nature with no height deviations. For the property owners, no more erosion coupled with enhancements created by higher graded banks made it all worthwhile. We highly recommend LaConte if you are considering a bulkhead or marine construction project