By Roman Ross — Marine Construction Estimator, Shore Protect Construction
The City of Evanston put out a design-build solicitation for something deceptively hard: a permanent, year-round, ADA-compliant way down to Dog Beach, on the Lake Michigan shoreline. Today the route to the sand is a temporary roll-out path that has to be deployed and pulled each season — fine in July, useless in February, and never truly accessible. The brief asked for a fixed structure that works in every season and keeps working as the beach moves underneath it. We developed two material paths that meet that brief at opposite ends of the durability scale: an aluminum frame with composite decking, and an all cast-in-place concrete ramp. Below is the comparison we worked through, what each one costs, and why, on a shoreline that shifts as much as this one, the cheaper-to-pour option is not automatically the better one. This is a design and bid scenario — the ramp is not built — so everything here is how we would approach it, not a finished result.
Bottom line: A permanent, year-round ADA beach-access ramp at Dog Beach lands at roughly $395,000 for the aluminum-and-composite option and $474,000 for the all-concrete option — a difference of about $78,000, or near 20%. Concrete is the most rigid, longest-life monolith, but it is the least adjustable on a moving beach and the most expensive. The aluminum-composite ramp rides on marine helical piles, stays corrosion-free, and can be re-leveled as the sand shifts — which is exactly what a dynamic Lake Michigan shoreline asks for. For a public dog beach, the adjustable option usually earns its keep.
Dog Beach sits on the Lake Michigan lakefront in Evanston, just east of Church Street — freshwater, but a high-energy Great Lakes shoreline, not a sheltered inland pond. The drop from the upland walkway down to the waterline is roughly five and a half to six feet, and the beach in between is a live surface: sand migrates with every storm, and Lake Michigan's own level rises and falls several feet across a multi-year cycle. The existing access is a temporary mat path laid over the sand, bordered by snow-fence — it gets the able-bodied down to the water in summer and offers nothing the rest of the year.
The existing seasonal access at Dog Beach — a temporary roll-out path down the sand to Lake Michigan, deployed and removed each year. The permanent ADA ramp replaces it.
Two facts set the whole design. First, the surface is dynamic: any structure resting on the sand will be undermined as the beach scours and rebuilds, so the foundation has to reach below the active zone and the run has to be able to follow a changing grade. Second, this is a protected public lakefront, which brings a stack of permitting agencies and an Evanston Preservation Commission review into play before anyone drives a pile. Both options below are designed around those two realities, and they answer them very differently.
Both options deliver the same accessible route — an 8.33% maximum slope with handrails and level landings, a gated dog foyer, an accessible beach landing, and an accessible dog-wash. Where they part ways is the structure that carries all of that. The aluminum-composite ramp is an elevated deck on marine helical piles: corrosion-free, low-maintenance, and — crucially — re-levelable as the sand moves. The cast-in-place concrete ramp is a heavier, fully rigid monolith with a stone revetment for erosion protection: the most durable thing you can build here, and the least willing to adapt once it is poured. The honest difference between them on a freshwater beach is less about how long they last and more about how they behave on a shoreline that refuses to hold still.
| Factor | Aluminum & Composite | Cast-in-Place Concrete |
|---|---|---|
| Design-build project cost | ~$395,000 | ~$474,000 |
| Cost difference | baseline | +~$78,000 vs aluminum (~20%) |
| Foundation | Marine helical piles — below the active sand zone | Cast footings + stone revetment |
| Structure | Elevated aluminum frame, composite decking | Rigid poured-concrete ramp and landing |
| Adjustable for shifting sand | Yes — deck and beach landing can be re-leveled | Limited — re-grading a poured ramp is a major job |
| Maintenance | Low; corrosion-free, serviceable in pieces | Minimal; monolithic and rigid |
| Service life | Long — corrosion-free metal and composite | 40–60+ years |
| Permanent wood in the finished structure | None | None |
| Best fit for | A moving beach that needs a year-round, adjustable accessible route | Maximum rigidity and longevity when adjustability is not the priority |
Reference photo of a completed elevated beach boardwalk with a railed, gated landing — the same elevated-on-piles, gated-foyer concept proposed for Dog Beach. Reference image, not the Evanston site.
This is the same material-versus-material decision we walk owners through on harder shoreline structures, too — for the freshwater version on an Illinois river, see our vinyl vs steel seawall on the Rock River in Rockford, where the cheaper option also turned out to be the better-fit one. For how we approach hardened shoreline work elsewhere on the Lake Michigan lakefront, our Lake Michigan shoreline bulkhead overview and Lake Michigan seawall overview cover the engineering for the same high-energy freshwater environment.
The single decision that defines the aluminum-composite option is the foundation. You cannot footing a permanent structure into beach sand and expect it to stay put — the next big blow rearranges the surface, and a slab-on-sand ramp ends up either buried or undercut. Marine helical piles solve that: they are screwed down past the active layer to stable bearing, and the elevated deck is hung off them, clear of the sand. When the beach builds up or scours, the structure does not move with it.
That same foundation is what makes the ramp re-levelable. Because the deck is supported on adjustable connections rather than cast into the ground, the beach-end landing can be re-set to meet a new sand grade without rebuilding the run. On a shoreline that moves as much as Lake Michigan's, that is the difference between a ramp that stays usable for decades and one that needs a callback after the first hard winter. The concrete option answers the same problem with sheer mass and a stone revetment instead — more permanent, but committed to the grade it was poured at.
The elevated approach also keeps the structure honest about the site's protected status: a pile-supported deck disturbs far less of the beach than excavating for footings and a revetment, which matters when the Evanston Preservation Commission and the lakefront permitting agencies are reviewing how much of the shoreline gets touched.
Both options share the accessibility program — the ramp geometry, the handrails, the gated dog foyer, the accessible landing and dog-wash. What changes is the structural material set. Here is the build for each.
Reference photo of a completed durable shoreline walkway with a stone-armored edge — the kind of low-maintenance, erosion-protected accessible path both options aim for. Reference image, not the Evanston site.
One point matters more than the line items: neither finished structure carries permanent wood in the splash zone. The aluminum-composite ramp is metal and composite throughout; the concrete ramp is poured and reinforced. That is a deliberate choice for a public beach that has to last with minimal upkeep — it takes the usual mid-life timber maintenance off the table entirely. The difference between the two is adaptability, not rot resistance.
A design-build delivery means the design, permitting, and construction are carried by one team on one schedule. Both options run the same three broad phases; the build phase is where they diverge.
Phase 1 — Design & Permitting. Survey and concept refinement, then drawings and specifications carried to permit-ready, then the multi-agency approvals: City of Evanston, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Illinois DNR and EPA, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, and an Evanston Preservation Commission Certificate of Appropriateness. This phase is sequenced first and runs in parallel for both options — the permitting path is essentially identical whether the ramp ends up aluminum or concrete.
Phase 2 — Foundation & Demolition. The temporary roll-out path and any damaged concrete are removed. On the aluminum-composite option, marine helical piles are screwed down below the active sand zone to set the elevated structure's bearing. On the concrete option, footings are excavated and poured and the stone revetment is set, reusing existing site boulders where they can be salvaged. This is the phase where the two approaches physically commit to different shorelines.
Phase 3 — Ramp, Enclosure & Finish. On the aluminum-composite option, the modular frame is erected on the piles, composite decking and aluminum handrails go on, the gated dog foyer and the adjustable beach landing are installed, and the dog-wash is brought to ADA standard. On the concrete option, the reinforced ramp and landings are poured and cured, handrails and gates are set, and the dog-wash is modified. Both close with grading, cleanup, and a walkthrough against the accessibility requirements.
For a permanent, year-round ADA beach-access ramp at Dog Beach, the two durability-first material paths come in at roughly $395,000 for aluminum-and-composite and $474,000 for all cast-in-place concrete — about $78,000, or near 20%, apart. These are design-build project figures: they carry the design and permitting, the foundation, the ramp and all of the accessibility features, and the site work, on a single delivery.
The reason a beach ramp costs this much is not the ramp itself — it is everything around it. Public shoreline work on Lake Michigan runs on prevailing-wage labor, carries bonding and insurance, and has to clear the multi-agency permitting and historic-lakefront review described above before construction can start. Design-build folds all of that into one number. Lower-cost material paths — value-engineered framing rather than full aluminum or all-concrete — exist for projects on a tighter budget, and we routinely scope a project to the envelope an owner is working within. For local context on hardened shoreline pricing nearby, our seawall construction cost in Evanston page covers area ranges, and the Evanston seawall service overview and Evanston shoreline-services overview walk through how we typically deliver waterfront structures in the city.
Upfront price is the easy comparison. The harder question for a public asset is how it ages, and what it costs to keep accessible over decades. Here is how the two options compare on a moving Lake Michigan beach:
Permitting is not a footnote on a Great Lakes shoreline — it is a phase of its own, and it is the same demanding path for either material. Any modification of the Lake Michigan shoreline draws review from multiple agencies at once: the City of Evanston, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the Illinois EPA, and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.
On top of that, the Evanston lakefront carries protected status, so the project also needs an Evanston Preservation Commission Certificate of Appropriateness — a review of how the structure looks and how much of the shoreline it disturbs. That is one more reason the elevated, light-footprint aluminum-composite approach reads well: it touches less of the beach than excavating for footings and a revetment. A design-build team carries all of this, but it has to be started early and sequenced ahead of construction — the approvals, not the building, set the schedule.
Roll-out beach mats only work in season and have to be installed and pulled every year, which leaves the beach inaccessible for months and adds a recurring labor cost. The brief here was a permanent, year-round accessible route to the water that stays in place through a Chicago-area winter. A fixed structure — aluminum-composite or concrete — delivers that, and once it is built nobody has to deploy or store anything. The trade-off is a higher upfront cost than mats, which is why the material choice matters.
A dog beach on Lake Michigan is a moving surface — the sand migrates with wind and wave, and the lake level itself swings several feet over a multi-year cycle. Marine helical piles are screwed down to stable bearing below that active zone, so the ramp does not rely on the shifting sand for support, and the elevated deck can be re-leveled if the beach builds up or scours away. It is the foundation that lets a fixed structure survive a dynamic shoreline. The cast-in-place concrete alternative trades that adjustability for a heavier, more rigid monolith.
That requirement drove the whole design. The aluminum-composite option is an elevated deck on helical piles with an adjustable beach landing, so the bottom of the run can be re-set to match the sand grade as it changes — the ramp keeps meeting the beach even after the profile moves. The all-concrete option is more permanent but far less adjustable; once it is poured, re-grading to follow the sand is a much bigger job. For a shoreline that moves as much as this one, adjustability is a real feature, not a detail.
Both are long-life, corrosion-aware systems built to avoid permanent wood in the splash zone. Cast-in-place concrete is the most rigid and lowest-maintenance wall we build and can run 40–60+ years, but it is the least adjustable and the most expensive here. An aluminum frame with composite decking is also corrosion-free and low-maintenance, and because it sits on helical piles it can be re-leveled and serviced in pieces over its life. For a public dog beach on a moving Lake Michigan shoreline, the adjustable aluminum-composite path is usually the better fit; all-concrete is for the owner who values a maximum-rigidity monolith over flexibility and budget.
Work on the Lake Michigan shoreline sits under several agencies at once. Expect review by the City of Evanston, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the Illinois EPA, and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, plus an Evanston Preservation Commission Certificate of Appropriateness because of the lakefront's protected character. A design-build delivery folds that permitting work into the project, but the multi-agency review is real and has to be sequenced early — it is one of the reasons a public shoreline ramp costs what it does.
Yes — the ramp is designed to ADA standards: a maximum running slope of 8.33 percent (1:12), continuous handrails on both sides, and level landings at the turns and at beach grade. Because it is a dog beach, the design also adds a gated leash-and-unleash enclosure — a small fenced foyer with two self-closing accessible gates — so a handler can safely unclip before stepping onto the sand, and an accessible dog-wash is incorporated as well. The accessible route and the dog-handling features are built into the same structure.
Shore Protect Construction designs and builds permanent, year-round shoreline access — ADA ramps, boardwalks, seawalls, and bulkheads — along the Lake Michigan lakefront and across Illinois, with the foundation engineering a moving freshwater shoreline actually needs. Multi-agency permit coordination, honest side-by-side material pricing, and turnkey delivery by a crew with over 20 years of marine construction experience. Request a free site consultation and we'll put a real number on your shoreline access.
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