Riprap, Seawalls & Shoreline Work on Lake Martin, Alabama

If the bank below your Lake Martin house is losing ground, this site lays out how riprap and seawall work gets approved and built on the lake: what Alabama Power's shoreline guidelines allow, what its permits cost, how the Corps of Engineers fits in, what the winter drawdown means for timing, and what the work costs. When you're ready, we connect you with one independent local contractor. There are guides for docks and lifts as well.

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Permit rules cited to Alabama Power's published text

For lakefront owners around Alexander City, Dadeville, Eclectic, Jacksons Gap and everywhere else on Lake Martin's shoreline.

Alabama Power prefers riprap on Lake Martin

Lake Martin is an Alabama Power reservoir, operated under a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license as Project No. 349, and Alabama Power's Shoreline Management office issues the permits for building on its banks and lakebed. Its residential guidelines for Martin, Yates and Thurlow are blunt about which fix it favors: "Rip-rap and natural bank stabilization are the preferred methods of erosion control; however, potential use of seawalls will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis."

So a sloped layer of rock along the waterline is the method Alabama Power already leans toward. A seawall can still be approved, but it's weighed lot by lot, and Alabama Power may call for riprap at its toe anyway. Either way, the work needs a written permit before it starts. In Alabama Power's words, "Verbal approval is not sufficient."

A 2021 column in Lake Martin Voice by a local realtor described riprap around here as "usually a volleyball or basketball sized granite rock." The guidelines themselves don't set a stone size, a slope or a layer thickness for Lake Martin, which is why the quote you get should spell those out.

Gray granite riprap stones lining a lake bank at the waterline, with pines on the slope above — Granite riprap along a lake bank at the waterline.

What Alabama Power's guidelines say

Riprap and natural stabilization are the preferred erosion controls. Seawalls are evaluated case by case.
New riprap, or added length of riprap, falls under the $400 General Construction Fee.
Adding rock to an existing riprap footprint is repair work, with a $200 fee.
Backfill has to be clean, approved by Alabama Power, and kept to the natural slope. New creosote is out.
A new or rebuilt seawall can be required to have rock along its base, reaching two feet up and two feet out.

The full Lake Martin riprap guide

What the Corps permit adds

Riprap and bulkheads fall under a Corps programmatic permit, APCO-PGP-05, verified project by project.
Requests for that verification start on Alabama Power's shorelines website.
Filter fabric "shall be considered and may be required by the local authorities."
No wetlands may be filled, and the permit can't be used to win back land already lost to erosion.
Planted and bioengineered stabilization has no length limit under the PGP.

How the permits work, step by step

Shoreline and dock guides for Lake Martin

Every guide below draws on Alabama Power's guidelines, the Corps permit and other published sources, listed at the bottom of each guide, so you can check a contractor's plan against the rules before a barge ever pulls up.

Riprap

Why Alabama Power prefers it, new rock versus topping up old rock, the Corps limits on bedding fill, filter fabric, what the rules leave unsaid, and the steps in order.

Seawalls

Seawall versus riprap on this lake, toe riprap, the 36-inch and 24-inch Corps limits on where a wall can sit, backfill rules, and when a repair becomes new work.

Shoreline erosion

What wears a Lake Martin bank down, what to look for at full pool and in winter, and the fixes the rules allow, from plantings and fiber logs to stone.

Winter drawdown

The lake drops from about 491 feet in summer to 484 feet by late November, and lower every six years. How owners use the low water for shoreline work.

Alabama Power permits

What needs a permit, the documents, the $400, $200 and $100 fees, the Corps verification, the one-year deadline to finish, and dates to confirm.

Dock repair

Painting and pressure washing aside, dock work can need a permit. Substantial repairs, legacy docks, storm damage and the 180-day window.

New docks and boathouses

The 1,510-square-foot and 62-foot limits, the 15-foot setback, frontage under 100 feet, open boathouses and storage, and the application.

Boat lifts and PWC lifts

Up to two PWC floats or lifts, when a third counts against your square footage, and what the winter level means for a lift set at summer pool.

Who approves shoreline work on Lake Martin

For most riprap, seawall and dock jobs, the homeowner deals with one office, Alabama Power's Lake Martin Shoreline Management office. Behind it sit a federal permit and state conditions:

Alabama Power

Its permits page says all work except painting and pressure washing in the lakebed, in the flood easement or within its control strip could require a permit. At Lake Martin the control strip runs 30 feet, measured horizontally, from the 491-foot contour. New work carries a $400 fee; a substantial repair, $200.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

The Mobile District's programmatic general permits cover riprap and bulkheads on Alabama Power reservoirs. Each project needs its own verification before work starts, and requests begin on Alabama Power's site. The PGPs are currently set to expire January 9, 2027. Ask Alabama Power which terms are in force when you file.

State and local

Alabama Power's guidelines tell owners who receive a PGP to follow ADEM's special conditions, and they say the permit doesn't remove the need for any federal, state or local approval the law requires. Subdivision ARC or HOA approval goes in with the application where it applies.

One detail surprises people: Alabama Power "does not issue any permits, or give verbal or written permission, to a permittee's contractors." The permit is yours, as the property owner, and you sign the guidelines that go with it.

The full permits guide: documents, fees, timing and contacts

The lake drops every winter

Lake Martin's drawdown starts on September 1 under its FERC license. In a normal year Alabama Power lowers the lake to 484 feet above mean sea level, with the drawdown "concluding by the third week of November." Summer pool is near 491 feet, so the waterline drops about seven feet each winter.

Every six years the license calls for a deeper drawdown. The last one, in 2021 and 2022, took the lake to near 481 feet by New Year's Eve and held it there until February 17, 2022, to give owners more lakebed access for improvements and maintenance. Alabama Power urged owners to contact its shoreline offices early.

Planning shoreline work around the drawdown

Lake Martin by the numbers

Summer level: Near 491 feet
Winter level: 484 feet, reached by the third week of November
Shoreline: 880 miles
Area: 41,150 acres, 31 miles long
Deepest point: 155 feet, at Martin Dam

Figures from Alabama Power's Martin Dam page and its drawdown notices.

What riprap costs

Lake Martin has no published price list for riprap or seawalls that we could find, so the honest reference is a national one. Angi's guide, built on 2025 data, gives $70 to $400 per linear foot, says the average job is about $20,000, and puts the normal range at $10,000 to $30,000. Steep banks, heavy wave exposure and hard access push a job toward the top of that range.

On top of the contractor's price, Alabama Power charges its permit fee: $400 for new riprap or added length, $200 for a substantial repair, including adding rock to an existing footprint.

Riprap costs, worked examples and what moves the price Get a written price on your shoreline

Published figures

National riprap price: $70 to $400 per linear foot; typical project $10,000 to $30,000 (Angi, 2025 data)
100 to 300 feet: $7,000 to $120,000 at Angi's per-foot range
New construction fee: $400 (Alabama Power)
Repair fee: $200 (Alabama Power)

One set of rules around the whole lake

Martin Dam, the first of four dams on the Tallapoosa River, sits just southwest of Dadeville, and the river forms the dividing line between Tallapoosa and Elmore counties. Whether your house is near Alexander City, across the water toward Eclectic, or near Kowaliga, the shoreline permit runs through the same Alabama Power office and the same Martin, Yates and Thurlow guidelines.

What does differ from lot to lot is how much authority Alabama Power has above the water. In a 2023 update, it said about 67 percent of the 4,167 Lake Martin permits it issued from July 2017 through 2022 were on unclassified shoreline, where it has "no authority through its SMP on property above full pool," and about 32 percent were on lots where it keeps the 30-foot control strip. Below full pool, in the lakebed, work can still need an Alabama Power permit either way.

How the referral works

LakeMartinRiprap.com doesn't build anything. It's a referral service that puts Lake Martin owners in touch with an independent contractor who does shoreline and dock work on the lake.

1
Tell us about the bank

Call or use the form. Say where you are on the lake, roughly how many feet of shoreline, and what's happening: bare dirt at the waterline, old riprap that has slid, a seawall that's leaning, or a dock or lift that needs work.
2
One contractor gets it

We pass your request to one independent local contractor. Your number isn't sold or sent around to a group of companies.
3
They see it and price it

The contractor contacts you, looks at the shoreline, and gives you a written price and plan.
4
You decide

You're under no obligation. Hire them and the deal is yours and theirs alone: contract, schedule, payment. The Alabama Power permit is issued in your name.

The referral costs you nothing.

Lake Martin shoreline questions

Do I need a permit for riprap on Lake Martin?

Plan on it. Alabama Power's guidelines name "sea walls and rip rap for bank stabilization, and re-grading" among the work they cover, and its fee schedule lists riprap by name. The riprap also falls under the Corps' APCO-PGP-05, which needs a project-specific verification that starts on Alabama Power's site. The riprap guide goes through it.

Can I add rock to old riprap without a permit?

Not by the guidelines' wording. The $200 General Repair Fee covers repair "of a substantial degree (including but not limited to adding rip rap to an existing rip rap footprint)," and Alabama Power decides what counts as substantial. Call the Shoreline Management office before any rock is ordered.

Will Alabama Power approve a seawall on my lot?

It decides lot by lot. The guidelines ask for any approved wall to sit "as close to the existing shoreline as possible," and rock at the base of the wall may be part of the deal. The Corps permit limits how far a new wall can sit into the lake. See seawalls on Lake Martin.

Should shoreline work wait for the lake to drop?

The drawdown exposes bank and lakebed that are underwater all summer, and the Corps permit encourages in-water work during low-flow periods. Neither the Lake Martin guidelines nor the Corps permits we read set a closed season for riprap. Permits take time, so apply ahead of the drop. More on the winter drawdown page.

Who actually does the work?

An independent local contractor, not this site. The quote, the contract and the work itself are all theirs, and they are responsible for their own licensing, insurance, permits, pricing and warranties. For the dollar amounts at which Alabama's contractor boards come in, and where to search a name, see who does the work.

Sources

Get a contractor's eyes on your shoreline

Call or send a request, and we'll put you in touch with one independent local contractor who works on Lake Martin. The referral is free.