[5] It is the first dam ever built in the United States that uses the single-centered roller-compacted concrete thick arch technique.

[8] The first government official known to have proposed building a dam to tame Rio Portugues from its devastating effects on the lives and properties of Ponceños was Ponce's 1899 Municipal Engineer-Architect Ramon Gandia Cordoba in his 16 March 1899 report titled Estado Actual de Ponce: Sus Necesidades y Medios Economicos para Satisfacerlas (Current State of [the Municipality of] Ponce, its Needs, and the Financial Means to Satisfy Them).

[10] While other measures were undergone, such as widening the path of the river within the city of Ponce, no dam-building would take place for over seven decades.

To reduce costs, a five-year technical review program was started to research new, lower-cost designs for the dam.

A 60 ft (18 m) long row of intricately carved stones bearing petroglyphs that appeared to date to the 11th or 12th century was also discovered.

Fifteen percent of the site was believed to have been uncovered up to that point and it was reported that as many as 400 bodies may be buried there.

The site had been initially marked during a cultural resource survey in 1979 but excavation work in 2007 prompted the major discovery.

Despite objections of locals, the Army Corps was bound by federal law and had to transport artifacts and human remains to a federally-approved laboratory in Georgia.