After the passage of the Reclamation Act of 1902 by the US Congress, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ethan A. Hitchcock authorized the Yuma Project in 1904.

This project was the first development of the U.S. Reclamation Service along the Lower Colorado River and featured the Laguna Diversion Dam, a pumping station and a series of canals.

Even after their contract was supplemented to encompass the rock quality delays, J. G. White and Company still did not meet their deadline and the Bureau of Reclamation took over construction in early 1907.

[2] To solve the cement delivery problems, the Bureau of Reclamation had built a levee on the California side on the dam that was topped by a rail-line by March 1908.

Beforehand, they had also gained the cooperation of the Southern Pacific Railroad who agreed to deliver cement directly at the dam site.