Javier Manterola Armisén (17 June 1936 – 12 May 2024) was a Spanish

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

and professor at the Escuela Superior de Ingenieros de Madrid. Manterola was particularly known for his work as a

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

designer of the engineering firm ''Carlos Fernández Casado''. Author of numerous and varied projects, in collaboration with different Spanish

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

s such as

Rafael Moneo José Rafael Moneo Vallés (born 9 May 1937) is a Spanish architect. He won the Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1996, the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2003, and La Biennale's Golden Lion in 2021. Biography Born in Tudela, Spain, Moneo studi ...

and others, he won, over his professional career, several awards such as the . He was a member of the

Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (RABASF; ), located on the Calle de Alcalá in the centre of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery. A public law corporation, it is integrated together with other Spanish royal aca ...

Life and career

Probably, his best known work is the Puente de La Pepa, opened in 2015. This bridge has become the main access to the city of

Cádiz Cádiz ( , , ) is a city in Spain and the capital of the Province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula off the Atlantic Ocean separated fr ...

. Another of his most important designs is the Engineer Carlos Fernández Casado bridge on the AP-66 which spans a part of the Barrios de Luna reservoir in León, which was a world record for a decade in several categories and is still the second longest span in Spain, after the above-mentioned La Pepa Bridge. Designer of many bridges in

Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

, Manterola designed the Manuel Giménez Abad Bridge for Zaragoza's third ring road ( Z-30) and the Barranco de la Muerte aqueduct, structure for the

Canal Imperial de Aragón Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...

to span the previously mentioned Z-30. For the

Expo 2008 Expo 2008 was an international exposition held from Saturday 14 June to Sunday 14 September 2008 in Zaragoza, Spain, with the theme of "Water and Sustainable Development". The exposition was placed in a meander of the river Ebro. It was coordin ...

, Manterola designed a pedestrian bridge called Pasarela del Voluntariado. Another of his designs is the bridge on the

Ebro The Ebro (Spanish and Basque ; , , ) is a river of the north and northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, in Spain. It rises in Cantabria and flows , almost entirely in an east-southeast direction. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea, forming a de ...

for the Spanish Madrid-Barcelona high-speed railway line. He was also the designer of the Puente de Andalucía on the

Guadalquivir The Guadalquivir (, also , , ) is the fifth-longest river in the Iberian Peninsula and the second-longest river with its entire length in Spain. The Guadalquivir is the only major navigable river in Spain. Currently it is navigable from Seville ...

Córdoba Córdoba most commonly refers to: * Córdoba, Spain, a major city in southern Spain and formerly the imperial capital of Islamic Spain * Córdoba, Argentina, the second largest city in Argentina and the capital of Córdoba Province Córdoba or Cord ...

and the Puente de las Delicias in

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

. In Vizcaya, Manterola was the designer of the on the

Estuary of Bilbao The Estuary of Bilbao ( Spanish: ''Ría de Bilbao'' / Basque: ''Bilboko Itsasadarra'') lies at the common mouth of the rivers Nervion, Ibaizabal and Cadagua, which drain most of Biscay and part of Alava in the Basque Country, Spain. In this i ...

and several bridges for the Supersur motorway. Manterola also participated in numerous restoration projects of historic bridges, like the

Puente Nuevo The ''Puente Nuevo'' (, "New Bridge") is the newest and largest of three bridges that span the chasm that carries the Guadalevín River and divides the city of Ronda, in southern Spain. Completed in 1793, the architect was José Martin de Al ...

Murcia Murcia ( , , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the Capital (political), capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the Ranked lists of Spanish municipalities#By population, seventh largest city i ...

(2001–2003) in which a city bridge closed to traffic due to structural reasons was transformed into a pedestrian bridge retaining the original structure during the restoration.Manterola et al. Manterola died on 12 May 2024, the name day of the saint patron of civil engineers, Dominic de la Calzada, aged 87.

Honours and awards

*2006:

International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering The International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering is presented to people for outstanding contributions in the field of structural engineering, with special reference to usefulness for society by the International Association for Bridge and ...

from the

International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering The International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE) is a non-profit organisation with mission to promote the exchange of knowledge and to advance the practice of structural engineering worldwide in the service of the profes ...

References

Bibliography

External links

*Aguiló Alonso, Miguel (2007)
Javier Manterola, más allá de la funcionalidad y la belleza
Ingenieria Y Territorio, 79, p. 36-43. {{DEFAULTSORT:Manterola, Javier 1936 births 2024 deaths Spanish bridge engineers Spanish civil engineers People from Pamplona Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando alumni 20th-century Spanish engineers 21st-century Spanish engineers