| Timoteo Luberza de San Martín | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1830 Ponce, Puerto Rico |
| Died | c. 1895 Ponce, Puerto Rico |
| Nationality | Puerto Rican |
| Occupation | Engineer |
Timoteo Luberza de San Martín was a nineteenth-century Puerto Rican engineer from Ponce, Puerto Rico. He was responsible for the 1875 Ponce water supply system, including the dam in Rio Portugues, and the Calle del Agua masonry arch aqueduct in barrio Portugues Urbano in Ponce.[1] In 1864, he served briefly as mayor of the nearby town of Yauco.[2]
Luberza designed aqueducts, bridges, roads, and various buildings. Luberza designed the Ponce aqueduct system, called "Acueducto Alfonso XII".[3] It was 4,100 meters long.[4]The 1876 cost was $220,000 U.S. dollars, and it became operational in that year.[5] It was made possible by a generous 54,000 Spanish pesos[6] donation from Valentin Tricoche, who also left in his will moneys for the costruction of a hospital, Hospital Tricoche.[7]
In 1858, the municipality of Coamo contracted Luberza to design the road from Juana Díaz to Coamo. Eventually this road became a section of the Carretera Central.[8] In the early 1860s, he designed Ponce's Plaza del Mercado Isabel II (Market place).[9] The marketplace opened in 1863. Its design was a reduced model of the Paris Marketplace.[10]
With a budget of 15,405 Spanish pesos, he also designed Bridge Number 173 over Río Las Minas in barrio San Idelfonso, Coamo, Puerto Rico. It was completed in 1862, and rebuilt in 1898 by the US Army Corps of Engineers, after being partly destroyed by the Spanish to keep the American invaders from advancing north towards San Juan at the Battle of Asomante. Bridge 173 is 6.7 meters long. It is on the road between Coamo and Juana Díaz, at kilometer 30.4 of PR-14, and it is the only original and still standing bridge on the southern section of the Carretera Central. [11]