A new dock at Lake of the Ozarks is a permitted structure on Ameren Missouri’s project lands. Ameren owns the shoreline under its federal license for Bagnell Dam. You do not order a dock and set it in the cove. You apply, Ameren reviews the location against navigation and your property lines extended into the lake, and only then can construction start.
This site collects that request and refers it to one independent builder who is certified to do the work. We are not that builder, and we are not Ameren.
What the builder needs from you
- The property address, and the cove, arm, or mile marker.
- How many wells you want, and whether a lift is part of the same project. A lift has to be attached to the dock. It cannot be a separate structure on the lake bed.
- Whether you want a roof. A covered dock has to float the roof. Ameren’s minimum roof live load for flotation and structure on a covered dock is 11.5 pounds per square foot, unreduced.
- Photos of the shoreline, the seawall if you have one, and the neighboring docks if you can see them. Ameren’s application asks for distances to those docks and to the center of the cove.
- Whether a permit is already on file. A new dock where an old one stood can still be a new permit or a modification. The permit guide lists the drawings.
Size limits that surprise people
Residential walkways are limited to 6 feet wide. Commercial and multi-family walkways can be 8 feet. Residential docks are limited to 125 feet of width, and a residential slip permitted under the current rules cannot be longer than 55 feet. In a cove up to 500 feet wide, the dock and any breakwater may not extend more than one-third of the way to the opposite shore, or closer than 25 feet to the center, whichever is more limiting, and not more than 100 feet. Wider coves and the main channels have their own caps, up to 350 feet in the channel rule. The size-limit guide puts those numbers in one place, with the Appendix B source.
Docks, and the slips and lifts counted with them, that occupy more than 3,000 square feet need plans signed by a Missouri professional engineer and an annual fee of $0.06 per square foot. See the large-dock note.
You cannot live on it
Ameren does not permit houses or other habitable structures on the water, and Appendix B bars toilets, showers, kitchens, and storage enclosures over 80 square feet. A pretty rendering with a guest room is not a dock Ameren will permit. Read what you cannot put on a dock before you fall in love with a plan.
Cost, without a fake bid
A competing quote site, lakeozarkboatdocks.com, published a 2026 range of $22,000 to $48,000 for a one-well dock. That is their figure, not a bid, and not a number Ameren sets. The cost guide explains what that range leaves out: permits, electrical, lifts, roofs, and the difference between a protected cove and a channel lot. Your number comes back from a builder who has seen the shoreline.