José Entrecanales Ibarra Foundation grants awards to a Spanish engineer, Javier Manterola, and to a cooperation project between Senegal and Gambia

The Foundation grants the José Entrecanales Ibarra Awards once every three years with the aim of promoting civil engineering and recognising its most outstanding practitioners, as well as emphasising its role in development cooperation. Consequently, these international awards are granted in two categories: Civil Engineering and  Development Cooperation.

This fifth edition of the awards was particularly notable. For the first time, the Foundation granted the Civil Engineering award to a prominent Spanish engineer, Javier Monterola Armisén, who chaired the jury for the previous edition of the José Entrecanales Ibarra Awards. Manterola holds a PhD in Civil Engineering and has been a professor at the Madrid Higher School of Engineering since 1976. He has an extensive track record in civil engineering, notably in designing bridges of international renown. His work has been recognised with Spain's National Engineering Award (2001) and the Prince of Viana Culture Award, among many others, and he was inducted into the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in December 2006.

The Jury granted the 5th Development Cooperation Award to the project entitled "Recovery of farmland and free circulation between Senegal and Gambia: Dam and bridge across the Sofaniama river between the rural communities of Nioro Katim and Passy Ndery, and water infrastructure for rice growing (Senegal)", which was presented by Alianza por la Solidaridad. The project seeks to secure free transit of persons and foodstuffs, since the rainy season is becoming shorter and more intense due to climate change, and to ensure farmland for rice, a staple component of the local diet.

The Jury for this 5th edition of the awards was chaired by Fernando Sáenz Ridruejo, PhD, who is an engineer, a historian of civil engineering and a former professor of the Madrid Engineering School. The other members of the jury were: Francisco Javier Martín Carrasco, Director of the Madrid Higher School of Civil Engineering and President of the José Entrecanales Ibarra Foundation; Julio Martínez Calzón, PhD, a civil engineer, who received Spain's National Engineering Award in 2017; Carlos del Álamo Jiménez, a forestry engineer, President of the Spanish Institute of Engineering and Vice-Chairman of the TYPSA Group; Carlos Mineiro, who holds a degree in civil engineering from the Instituto Superior Técnico and is Chairman of the Portuguese Order of Engineers; Juan Santamera, President of the Spanish Professional Association of Civil Engineers and a Trustee of the Foundation; Juan Entrecanales de Azcárate, PhD, who is an engineer, a Trustee of the Foundation and Honorary Chairman of ACCIONA; and Juan Ignacio Entrecanales, who is an industrial engineer, Vice-President of the Foundation's Board of Trustees and Vice-Chairman of ACCIONA. Alberto Bornstein Sánchez, who is Secretary of the José Entrecanales Ibarra Foundation, acted as Secretary of the Jury.