Edgar Cardoso
Edgar António de Mesquita Cardoso ( born May 11, 1913 in Porto, † 5 July 2000 in Lisbon ) was a Portuguese bridge engineer.
Life
Born the son of a Portuguese officer and mining engineer and a wealthy Brazilian In Porto, he spent the first part of his childhood, before he moved with his family to Lisbon. At the age of eleven he moved with his parents and six brothers and sisters back to Porto. His father, the last in rank of major, was in 1924 transferred to the reserve and was director of the Public Roads Administration Junta Autónoma de Estrada (AWU). After graduating from the Liceu Alexandre Herculano 1931 Cardoso followed in the footsteps of his father and enrolled at the faculty of engineering of the University of Porto.
After graduating in 1937, he accepted a position with the AWU in the Department of Bridges. In addition to the design and construction of bridges, he increasingly devoted himself to the research and innovation. In addition to his public employment he was also private economic transactions; 1944 he opened an office in Lisbon. His academic career became increasingly active, especially after 1951, when he accepted a professorship at the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST). As a result, his commissioned work rose sharply. Became known, inter alia, his construction of the Ponte da Arrábida in Porto, which was the largest reinforced concrete arch bridge in the world at that time. In addition to numerous projects in Portugal and the former Portuguese colonies, he was also active internationally, such as the bridge planning at expressway construction in Barcelona in 1969 or 1974 in Italy, in the discussion about the plans of the bridge over the Straits of Messina.
After the Carnation Revolution in 1974, he was forced to resign his academic assignments, since it support the authoritarian Estado Novo regime was accused. From 1979 until retirement in 1983, he worked as a professor again. He received a fee of one million escudos for the period 1974 to 1979, which he left to state agencies, which then Edgar Cardoso founded the Foundation, which has since fellowships and research awards prizes at IST.
The railway bridge Ponte de S. João in Porto in 1991, his last own project. He was then only occasionally and in an advisory or mitbeteiligter function operates, about the expansion of the airport of Madeira ( opening 2000).
In 2000, he died in hospital Hospital Pulido Valente, Lisbon. He was married June 7, 1941, Margarida Congeol and left no children.
Reception
Cardoso is now regarded as an innovator in bridge construction, the constructions were known for their lightness and delicate beauty of form. He was elected in 2007 by the public service broadcaster RTP organized election to the greatest Portuguese of all time (Os Grandes Portugueses ) number 87.
He was an honorary doctorate from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.
Works (selection)
- Ponte da Arrábida in Porto (opening 1963)
- Bridge over the Limpopo in Xai -Xai, Mozambique ( opening in 1964 )
- Samora Machel Ponte in Tete, Mozambique (opening 1973)
- Ponte Governador Nobre de Carvalho in Macau (opening 1974)
- Ponte Edgar Cardoso in Figueira da Foz (opening 1982)
- Ponte de São João in Porto (opening 1991)