DEMONSTRATED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF
MORE THAN 50 YEARS OF ACTIVITY
Carlos Fernández Casado Project Office
A company founded in 1964 by Professor D. Carlos Fernández Casado, along with two young disciples, Javier Manterola Armisén and his son Leonardo Fernández Troyano. Since then, the company has maintained uninterrupted activity.
A company founded in 1964 by Professor D. Carlos Fernández Casado, along with two young disciples, Javier Manterola Armisén and his son Leonardo Fernández Troyano. Since then, the company has maintained uninterrupted activity.
In its early days, the company had a strong relationship with Huarte y Cía, one of the leading construction firms in the country at the time, which later became part of the international construction giant OHL. The firm gradually opened up to collaborations with other clients, including Public Administrations, construction companies, and private clients.
The international activity of CFCSL also began in these early stages, collaborating with Huarte y Cía in Latin American countries, where Professor Fernández Casado enjoyed significant prestige and influence thanks to his teaching activities and technical publications. This international presence has continued to grow and now represents one of the company’s main sources of activity.
From its inception, the company has had the opportunity to participate in some of the most important civil engineering and architectural projects. It has designed unique structures, from the world’s first bridge built using the successive cantilever method with prefabricated segments, to setting a world record in concrete cable-stayed bridges, and currently participating in the design team for the largest cable-stayed bridge in the United States.
Over its nearly 50 years of activity, the company has been involved in around 900 projects, mostly bridges but also including special structures of all kinds (high-rise buildings, towers, roofs, dams, transport stations, and sports facilities), as well as delicate historical building restoration projects.
D. Carlos Fernández Casado (Logroño 1904 Madrid 1988)
The first director of the company from its founding until 1984, he is an essential reference in contemporary Spanish Engineering and Architecture, not only for his mastery in bridge and building construction but also for his great intellectual prestige and his studies on the history and aesthetics of public works. A Civil Engineer at the age of 19, he had a long professional career as an engineer for the Ministry of Public Works and as an independent consultant before founding the company that bears his name.
His training and early work in the 1920s and 1930s coincided with the development and expansion of reinforced concrete in Europe, a material that Professor Fernández Casado studied in depth and whose construction possibilities he explored with great dedication. With it, he carried out most of his initial projects, some of which, such as the collection of Strict Height Bridges (1930–1950) or the prefabricated industrial buildings developed in the 1940s and 1950s, are undoubtedly among the greatest achievements of this type of construction in Spain. However, he is probably best known as one of the main introducers and developers of prestressed concrete technology in Spain.
From the 1950s onwards, he devoted himself to studying and developing projects using this new technique, and with it, mostly through the company CFCSL, which he founded, he carried out numerous notable projects between 1960 and 1980. In addition to his professional work, he was a professor at the School of Civil Engineering, holding the Chair of Masonry Bridges until 1976 and contributing to the training of several generations of engineers. His studies and technical publications on Strength of Materials, Structural Analysis, and Bridge Engineering have long been essential references in Spanish technical schools and have also achieved significant dissemination in Latin American countries.
Recognition of his great contribution to the development of concrete technology led to him being awarded numerous national and international prizes, among which the Gold Medal of the International Federation for Prestressing (F.I.P. Féderation Internationale de la Précontrainte) at the International Congress held in London in 1974 stands out, making him the first Spanish engineer to receive this honour. Similarly, his special concern and studies on the artistic and historical aspects of public works – including his work on Roman Engineering – led to him being the first Civil Engineer elected as a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid in 1974.
This concern and interest in the aesthetic aspect of public works remains within the company and, along with its high technical capacity, constitutes the distinctive hallmarks of CFCSL. After the retirement of D. Carlos Fernández Casado and up to the present day, the company’s leadership has been shared by its co-founders, Dr. Engineer Leonardo Fernández Troyano (Madrid 1938) and Professor Dr. Engineer Javier Manterola Armisén (Pamplona 1936).
D. Javier Manterola Armisén (Pamplona 1936 Madrid 2024)
He is a co-founder and current co-director of CFC SL. He began his professional career at Huarte y Cía and, before joining the CFCSL project, spent a year as a researcher at the Eduardo Torroja Institute of Construction Materials.
Within his work at CFCSL, he has participated in many of the engineering and architectural projects developed by the company, covering high-rise buildings, transport stations, and large sports facilities, but standing out particularly for his intense activity in the world of bridges. Among these, notable works include the Barrios de Luna Cable-Stayed Bridge, which held the world record for cable-stayed bridges when it was completed (1984).
His professional activity is complemented by an extensive teaching career at the School of Civil Engineering in Madrid, where he held the Chair of Masonry Bridges for 30 years. His technical publications on bridge design and construction are essential references in contemporary Spanish engineering and have contributed to the training of several generations of engineers, including most of the current members of CFCSL.
His prestigious career has been recognised and awarded numerous prizes. Among them, the Gold Medal of the International Federation for Prestressing (F.I.P. Féderation Internationale de la Précontrainte) and the International Award of Merit (2006) from the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE) stand out. He also received the first National Engineering Award granted by the Spanish Ministry of Public Works and the Santo Domingo de la Calzada Medal awarded by the Spanish Association of Civil Engineers (2011).
His work on public works as art and his studies on the structures of modern architecture from the perspective of a structural engineer led to his election as a permanent member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid in 2008.
D. Leonardo Fernández Troyano (Madrid, 1938)
He has developed his entire professional career at the company since its founding in 1964, combining this activity for several years with teaching Bridge Engineering at the School of Civil Engineering in Madrid.
His work with the firm covers most types of bridges, including notable works such as the Sancho el Mayor Cable-Stayed Bridge over the River Ebro.
He has also participated in numerous urban planning and transport station projects with multidisciplinary teams. Additionally, he has been involved in numerous restoration and reinforcement projects for historical structures.
He has been awarded numerous prizes, among which the John A. Roebling Medal, recognising his career in bridge engineering, awarded at the ESWP International Bridge Conference (USA 2007), and the Santo Domingo de la Calzada Medal awarded by the Spanish Association of Civil Engineers (2008) stand out.
He has also received, jointly with Professor J. Manterola, various recognitions for his and CFCSL’s contribution to the development of structural engineering, such as the Architecture and Planning Award from the Madrid City Council and the Professional Award from the Association of Engineers and Architects of Spain (1994).
In addition to his prolific professional practice, Dr. L. Fernández has developed an intense research activity on the History of Public Works and Bridge Construction. This work is reflected in numerous conference participations and several monographic publications. Among these, his book “Earth Over Water. A Universal Historical Vision of Bridges,” with translations into English and Italian, stands out.
