AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
I was born in 1942 and last 33 of 32 I turned 72 Fahrenheit years old, no less. In 1966, when I was 23, I finished my seven years of studies in our lovely Retiro School in Madrid, although it actually used to take more than seven years to complete it. Then, I decided to embrace the professional life to be what I had decided to be: a civil engineer. Forty six years later, I think I can say –with good pride- that I am and I feel more like an engineer than ever. And I have never stopped being one. Many things have changed in our country since 1966; essentially for the better. And the incredible progress in infrastructures and in public works -the works of everybody- has contributed to this end. I have been a witness and a central figure, like many others, of those changes that we are enjoying today and which most of us are not prepared to renounce. However, some of them have been developed by incompetence, greed or at the wrong time. Once I finished my studies –although I have never stopped studying-, I started to work for Cubiertas and MZOV in the design and construction of bridges over the new channel of the Turia River. This project completely transformed Valencia and solved its flooding problems for good. I became part of an experienced team which came, most of it, from Venezuela and Angola: “Portuñol” (Spanish and Portuguese) was our everyday language. During 1969 I worked in Paris, in the outstanding engineering company created around Freyssinet. I made the most of my time. I complemented my academic background by working in different projects related to bridges and prestressed concrete structures. In January 1970, back in Spain, I declined opportunities that I had in and outside Spain and I set up the basis of the engineering society, Esteyco, the work of my life. I was 27 years old. I did not have a truly business vocation but I intuited, and I was right, that I needed an organization and a team in order to put into practice my ambitious professional ideas. Later on, I drove the creation of other specialized engineering companies such as Wasser, Knossos and Kinesia among others; and I provided them with all the required tools to “take-off”. We needed tenacity and big efforts to pave our own way. We started from nothing. We hardly had access to hydraulic and port projects which were under construction at the time. There was not tradition of hiring engineering enterprises by the Public Administration. The Ministry of Civil Works, General Directorate of Roads, had some extraordinary regional offices for projects and geological services. In the same way, Hydrographic Confederations had a great team of engineers. In the latest decades, these institutions have gradually declined leading to an authentic impoverishment without anybody feeling guilty of such a terrible outrage. For years, we survived by developing, in the shade, a lot of concrete projects and urban and industrial structure buildings which were usually modestly paid. From time to time, we designed some singular structures or motorway bridges which had been designed by German, Norwegian or even Catalo-American first class engineering companies which were a nursery of prominent engineers.
At that time, independent engineering companies were very young; and Spain was the country of opportunities in which everything was still in the making. And we looked and found our own opportunities. Eventually, we left our mark in the Atlántico Motorway which gave us the opportunity to access a sector full of possibilities. Around 1975, I received the unexpected offer of being a lecturer at the School of Civil Engineering in Madrid to teach the “Structures and Metallic Bridges” subject. I think I was a good teacher and I was able to confirm that teaching is the best way of learning. In 1991 I discreetly quit. Still very young -and without external support-, I attended several specialized seminars in France and New York. This allowed me to know first-hand the real situation in a similar field: “Pre-stressed slabs with unbounded tendons”. This technology was very popular in the United States but it was not in Spain. Later on, I contributed to its spreading in Spain thanks to articles, conferences and pioneer performances. I also took advantage of my international contacts in order to promote the presence of remarkable engineers and new concepts in Spain. Thus, Professor Schlaich had an interview with us in the Eduardo Torroja Institute – maybe for the first time. And so did Dr. Reagan, a specialist in shearing and shear failure; and Professor Clifford, president of the American Posttensioning Institute or Dr. Aalami, a lecturer at the University of California and a recognised expert, also visited our country. Furthermore, I was an active member of the European Convention for Constructional Steelwork (ECCS) and I actively participated in international meetings together with some of the finest lecturers of the time, for instance, Pierre Dubas and René Maquoi with whom I had a great personal and professional relationship. In 1992, Professor Jöel Raoul, current EC-4 president, was a guest in our office and worked with us for some weeks. Additionally, I was invited by Professor Maquoi to work as a teacher of a specialized course on Eurocode 3 in Paris. In 1993, I was invited by Professor Roger Lacroix to exhibit my projects and works of the Olympic Barcelona in the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris. Besides, I was a member of the Scientific Committee of IABSE Congress which took place in Prague and I participated as a speaker in several international meetings. For years, I was a member of the European Concrete Committee, the prestigious CEB. I took part in the drafting of the important 1991 Model-Code as a member of “IV: Member Design” and “VI: Detailing” commissions. I also became the official Spanish representative in the drafting of Eurocode 4 of Composite Structures along with outstanding figures in this relatively new branch of knowledge. Furthermore, I was an active member of the European Convention for Constructional Steelwork. In 1987 I was awarded with the ATEP medal as recognition for my contribution to the pre-stressed concrete development in Spain; similarly, in 1992 I was awarded with the Medal for Professional Merit by the Spanish School of Civil Engineering and in 2013, the medal of Honor. In 2014 I was awarded the “Toda una vida” (For a whole life) prize by the Ale Heavylift company. I was the first elected member of the young Engineering Academy and in 1998 I gave a speech: “Structural Aphorisms which can be very useful to understand certain behaviours of human beings”. Previously, between 1992 and 1994, I was President of the Spanish association of Consultants and Engineering which is composed of the FIDIC, EFCA and FEPAC. At that time, I drew up the first Spanish Recommendations for the Design of Steel and Composite Bridges for the General Directorate of Roads, specifically the RPM-95 and RPX-95 which are nowadays part of our professional scene. They consist of a valuable Handbook on Implementation, a Guide on Integral Bridges as well as other documents of undoubtedly professional interest.
Moreover, I have given a lot of conferences in Spain and abroad (France, Uruguay and Argentina). I have also participated in a great number of congress, seminars and courses related to Structures, Engineering, Architecture and Environment.
I have had to do -and my country has allowed me to do- a lot of different things. And now, when I travel around Spain -physically or virtually-, I find a lot of works which have humanized our landscape. For instance, we had a strong presence in the famous 1982 World Championship and we played an important role in the amazing pre-Olympic Barcelona period in 1992. And so we did in the Seville Expo’ 92. Later on, we also participated in the construction of the wrongly explained and understood 2004 Forum in Barcelona as well as the enlargement of Reina Sofía Museum and the previous construction of the Thyssen Museum. We have also done relevant roads, dual carriageways and motorways, for instance: the Atalaya – Motilla stretch in the Valencia Dual Carriageway, which is, from my point of view, a beautiful example; the 140 m Tablate arch-bridge located in a high seismic risk area, (when I say risk area I mean it literally since administrative obstacles made it impossible to get paid all due fees); high-speed trains (unfortunate name) which travel around our geography thanks to numerous stretches designed by us and they arrive to stations and train depots in which their trajectories are the way we designed it; and our tunnels and bridges which support road and rail traffic and our delicate walkways, without beads, through which a lot of pedestrians walk in a relaxing way. There are just a few places which do not remind me of our works. Even abroad. We have been in Iraq, Iran, Bulgaria, France, Belgium, Argentina, India and Qatar. And now our future is in Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Brazil… Also, we have innovated in different fields such as wind energy thanks to what we already knew and to what we have learned; and this has opened us the gates of the world. In the last years, I have driven the creation of different teams and enterprises such as Esteyco Energía. They are nowadays an international reference in terrestrial and maritime wind turbines and parks. Our activities are spread to a growing number of countries and some of the most important enterprises in the field are our clients. Esteyco Foundation, which I created more than 20 years ago, is nowadays a professional reference in our country and a valuable instrument in order to consolidate our culture in the different enterprises which have been built around me throughout the years. Our publications as well as our events are warmly welcomed among our fast-growing professional environment. Looking back through the rear-view mirror and from the zenith of my 72 years old, I can say that I am proud of having been born, grown up and worked in such an amazing country which has hugely prospered thanks, to a great extent, to the infrastructures which some of us have made possible in an extraordinarily multidisciplinary environment. These infrastructures have been built thanks to competitive prices and taking advantage of European economic assistance. And they are not responsible for the devastating crisis we are going through, contrary to what some want to make us believe. In fact, this crisis will come to an end sooner thanks to the fact that all infrastructures designed and built in Spain were made to last at least 100 years. For a long time these infrastructures have been built thanks to our savings and they are part of our legacy to younger generations. However, we are still in the making and we will overcome this difficult situation when we are able to go back to what we do best. Not doing more and more but doing it better.
However, this will be possible only if we have efficient politicians who understand the transforming significance of infrastructures. In contrast to what has been happening in the latest years of financial bulimia and intellectual anorexia. Particularly, in the field of infrastructures, we have suffered too many years of incompetent and arrogant misrules which have imposed the code of silence among professionals. This has prevented us from expressing our perplexity with regard to wrong politics and decisions. At the same time, this has favoured the emergence of carpet baggers, dealers, bootlickers and impostors around politicians. In the meantime, the knowledge of great professionals has been ignored or disregarded. Despite this, I am very proud of having contributed to the extraordinary progress of our country. And I do not feel responsible for all the mess which has led to ruin this country in a few years. And along with my people, we are making an effort to start the inevitable renaissance which will arrive sooner thanks to our splendid capital of knowledge as well as the experiences that we are gathering. It will also be possible thanks to our overcoming spirit, knowing as we know that our experience and knowledge is required all over the world. Abroad, we may find politicians who listen to our opinions and actually ask for them in order to avoid those mistakes we have made in Spain. However, it is also important to repeat the many more wise choices we have also made which make possible our country to still have a promising future. JAVIER RUI-WAMBA MARTIJA Civil Engineer President of Esteyco and Founder of the Esteyco Foundation