Cotton Bayou, Terry Cove and Perdido Pass seawall planning

Get to know your waterfront

Perdido Pass runs between Florida Point and Alabama Point. The State Route 182 bridge crosses it on two fixed spans, with 54 feet of clearance over the pass channel and 41 feet over the Cotton Bayou channel. Past the bridge the dredged channel forks. One arm runs north into Terry Cove and Johnson Cove. The other runs east toward Bayou St. John. Cotton Bayou sits on the west side, about 0.7 mile above the entrance, and several small-craft facilities line the coves.

U.S. Coast Pilot 5, Chapter 6 (edition dated 25 Oct 2026), Big Lagoon to Old River, paragraph 354 · U.S. Coast Pilot 5, Chapter 6 (edition dated 25 Oct 2026), paragraph 354 · U.S. Coast Pilot 5, Chapter 6 (edition dated 25 Oct 2026), paragraph 358 · GNIS Domestic Names - Alabama (DomesticNames_AL.txt, file dated 2026-09-30)

What decides a wall on the pass and its coves

Three things set the plan on these shores: who issues the permit, how much wake and current the wall takes, and how the pass itself behaves. Settle them in that order.

The city issues the permit, and the rules come in layers

Census boundary layers run the Orange Beach polygon east past Perdido Pass to about longitude -87.514. Alabama Point sits inside it, and so do the Cotton Bayou and Terry Cove shores. Census city limits Confirm your own parcel before you call anyone.

A recent city record shows what a replacement looks like on paper. A 2021 Site Permit covered a new bulkhead built in front of a damaged one. It had front pilings and landside deadman pilings, a $60,000 job value and $85 in city fees. City permit ST21-000353 A deadman is a buried anchor that holds the wall back against the soil. See tiebacks and anchors for how those work.

Wake does more damage here than wind

These coves hold marinas, public launches and island lots, so boats pass all day. In 2019 the city lobbied Alabama Marine Police to widen idle-speed zones in Terry Cove, Cotton Bayou and the islands north of the pass. The stated goal was less island shoreline erosion. City 2019 accomplishments report

Repeated small waves hit the toe of a wall again and again. Water then scours the sand in front and pulls soil out through weak joints. Ask any bidder how the design handles toe scour. A wall that looks sound above the water can be losing fill behind it. Read about soil loss and drainage before you accept a patch.

Next door on the Bayou St. John channel, hard armoring covers 62% of the shoreline. Alabama shoreline armoring table Walls that face each other across a narrow channel bounce wake back and forth. That is another reason to check the cap and the toe together.

Perdido Pass moves sand, and the channel moves with it

The ebb shoal outside the jetties covers about 240 acres and holds roughly 3.0 to 3.4 million cubic yards of sand. Olsen ebb shoal report A 2006 study called the pass a substantial sink for sand from the beach system. It also noted that the Corps and the State own the inlet water bottoms. Olsen sediment report

• The federal outer channel is authorized at 12 feet deep and 150 feet wide. Inner reaches are 9 feet deep and 100 feet wide. Corps channel framework
• The city paid $800,000 to have dredged pass sand placed on its own beach, about half the cost of dredging alone. City Horizons 2020 report
• The Corps posted condition surveys of the pass channel on 24 February 2026 and 3 August 2026. Corps eHydro surveys

Do not assume the charted depth in front of your dock. Ask a contractor to sound the bottom before choosing a lift or a barge route.

What Sally and the older storms left behind

Sally's surge reached 5 to 7 feet above ground along the county coast in 2020. The worst damage was in the back bays east of Gulf Shores toward the state line. Many docks and piers were destroyed. NHC Sally report NWS surveyed 7 to 9 feet of inundation in parts of Orange Beach and noted a damaged walkway at the Cotton Bayou Gulf access. NWS Sally county report

Public works show the same repair cycle. The city bid its Perdido Pass Seawall Park repairs in January 2023 under FEMA Project No. 181334. The scope covered timber boardwalk, timber landscape walls, riprap and pile cap repairs. City bid notice FEMA records also list more than $520,000 for Perdido Pass projects after Sally. FEMA Public Assistance records

The gauge at Alabama Point recorded a great diurnal range of only 0.9 foot, so daily tides are small. NOAA Alabama Point datums Storms are what test a wall. Peak levels at the pass reached 8.8 feet NGVD in Ivan in 2004 and 5.6 feet in Georges in 1998. Corps tide-gage table Our storm guide covers what to inspect after one.

Public structures beside your private wall

Your wall may end at a public one. On January 11, 2024, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources reported that the fishing area on the west side of the pass had been renovated. It had partly reopened. The area directly under the bridge stayed closed while work continued. ADCNR announcement The city was also building a new Coastal Resources office and marina facility on Terry Cove in 2019. City 2019 accomplishments report

• Ask who owns the last section of wall at each property line, you or the public agency.
• Record the cap height on both sides of every joint before work starts.
• Photograph the toe at low water so a later dispute has a baseline.

Public walls are rebuilt on public budgets and calendars. A private wall that ties into one needs a written plan for who pays when the two settle differently.

Lifts, piers and the launch ramps nearby

Piers and boathouses need their own building permit. The city charges $3 per $1,000 of value, with a $25 minimum, and $30 for a boat lift electrical permit. City fee schedule Public ramps at Cotton Bayou and Boggy Point give a view of the water from the public side. Cotton Bayou Launch Boggy Point Launch Our docks and boat lifts page covers sizing.

What could the work cost?

Ask each bidder to price three things apart from the wall: access by barge or by land, toe protection against wake, and the buried anchors. City fees are small, so most of your cost sits in engineering, materials and the water-side work. The city lists a first site-permit review at 14 days and revisions at 7. See bulkhead costs per foot for the Baldwin County ranges.

Orange Beach permit values are what applicants declared for fee purposes, not invoices. Public bids carry bonding and county terms. Prices for steel, concrete, composite and aluminum come from outside Alabama and are labeled with their geography.

Find the relevant permits and records

Prepare the questions for the responsible office.

Pre-bid checklist for a Cotton Bayou or Terry Cove wall

Five checks, each from a public record. Do them before you invite bids.

1. Search the city permit portal for your address

   The portal lists permits issued after 2018. Filter by permit type to find earlier bulkhead work on the lot. Monthly reports back to 2021 show what neighbors built.

   Building Department Monthly Reports | Orange Beach, AL

2. Confirm the parcel is inside city limits

   Open the Baldwin County parcel viewer and switch on the city limits and building permit jurisdiction layers. A parcel in neither is permitted by the county.

   Permitting FAQs | Baldwin County Building Department

3. Ask Coastal Resources about Highway 182

   Tell the office whether the lot is north or south of the highway. South-side lots go through coastal use review before work starts.

   Orange Beach Code of Ordinances Ch. 30, Art. VII Coastal Construction (Municode, Supp. 40) · Coastal Resources - About

4. Pull the latest pass survey

   Look up the Corps eHydro condition surveys of Perdido Pass Channel. They show what the channel looks like now, not what it was authorized to be.

   USACE eHydro Survey Data (feature service) · National Channel Framework, ChannelReach layer (channel area CESAM_PP_01_PPC, Perdido Pass Channel)

5. Ask Marine Police about idle-speed zones

   Find out whether your frontage sits in a posted zone. It tells you how much wake the wall will face and how long a pier can run.

   2006-2020 City Projects Associated with Horizons 2020 Recommendations (revised August 27, 2019)

Keep planning

Nearby waterfront guides

Bayou St. John, Old River & Robinson Island, Gulf-front Orange Beach, Ono Island

View the local guide directory.