Seaside Seawalls has just begun a project for a residential customer on Dollar Lake, which is located in the city of Keego Harbor, Michigan. Keego Harbor is located in the greater Oakland County, which is affectionately referred to as “Lakeland Paradise” by its residents and neighbors. Our construction efforts for this residential client on Dollar Lake consisted of installing a steps and a brand new Redi-Wall limestone seawall with sand backfill and riprap. In case you are unfamiliar with the term ‘riprap’, it is a rock material (in this case, Michigan fieldstone) that is often utilized to maintain structures and their form. For seawalls, riprap is often used at the toe of the wall along the front because it not only helps keep the seawall in place, but it also helps mitigate shoreline erosion – a common problem for waterfront residential and commercial properties in Michigan. Oftentimes we find the reason that the majority of seawalls fail is due to shoreline erosion, whereby the waterline erodes away at the shoreline over many years.
For this project, we first had to obtain a Major Impact DEQ Permit before we could begin any kind of construction. After this was received, we were able to proceed by gathering the necessary materials for this task. Some of the equipment that we will be using includes an excavator and a skid steer.
With an estimated time to completion being two days, the Redi-Wall limestone face block seawall is going to be approximately 76 feet in length and 12 – 18 inches in height. 
Additionally, the seawall will consist of one row of block. It will be installed on the natural shoreline to prevent any further shoreline erosion. Due to the fact that it is a natural shoreline, we had to obtain a ‘Major Impact’ DEQ Permit rather than the regular DEQ Permit. Before construction, the grade of the yard was low near the water table and consisted of very damp and soggy conditions. We raised the grade of the yard near the seawall approximately 6 inches. The combination of installing a seawall and raising the grade of the yard will help to ensure that the property line up to the wall is firmer and remains dry.
The steps we are installing on this waterfront property are going to be about 4 feet wide using pre-cut limestone, and the riprap is going 
to consist of 4 – 8 inches of Michigan fieldstone placed at 100% of the water ward toe of the wall.
Keego Harbor is a city that is situated in Oakland County, Michigan. There are about 2,970 residents in Keego Harbor. Some interesting facts about the city: Did you know that the word ‘Keego’ means “big fish” in an Indian language? It is also interesting to note that while the city’s name includes the word “Harbor”, that there is no actual harbor in Keego Harbor! Rather, the city surrounded by several large lakes, with Dollar Lake being just one of the many lakes in Keego Harbor.
Oakland County has a total area of 908 square miles, with about 4% of that being water. Therefore it is easy to see why residents call Oakland County a “Lakeland Paradise”! There are about 1,202,362 residents living in the county, with many of these residents partaking in both summer and winter water activities such as boating, wakeboarding, snowmobiling, and ice fishing.
Seaside Seawalls offers many different types of seawalls, including steel, vinyl, rock and riprap. However, we are not limited to just the construction of seawalls! We also offer a wide array of other construction and landscaping services such as dock and deck installation, beach sanding, the installation of boat lifts, and much more! Please see out Service Page for a comprehensive list of the services we provide. Do not hesitate to Contact Us today for a free estimate for your next residential or commercial landscaping project!