Lake’s Shore Designed for ‘Realism’ Look

An unusual process for creating a shoreline of a man-made lake is under way at Eastlake Development Co.’s 3,073-acre Eastlake planned community in Chula Vista.

“The old way of making lake edges was to dig a trench, pour concrete into it and then wash the dirt away,” Philip di Giacomo, the Azusa contractor who is creating the shoreline, said. “What remained was a mirror image of the dirt--formations in reverse.”

Instead of repeating this procedure, de Giacomo’s firm is aiming to make the lake edge “geologically correct within the confines of its man-made structure” by using glass-reinforced concrete sections made from molds, suspended by wire, supported by concrete and painted to look realistic.

The 15-acre lake, which will be the centerpiece of a residential neighborhood known as EastLake Shores, will have a depth of about eight feet and be totally surrounded by di Giacomo’s synthetic edge. The lake, which will be stocked with fish but will be off limits to swimmers, will be filled with nearly 32 million gallons of reclaimed water.