Alfonso Peña Boeuf

Alfonso Peña Boeuf (23 January 1888 – 1 February 1966) was a Spanish civil engineer and administrator. He was Minister of Public Works from 1938 to 1945 in the government of General Francisco Franco. He did much to reconstruct the roads and railways that had been devastated during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) and launched a massive hydrological program for electricity and irrigation.

Early career
Alfonso Peña Boeuf was born on 23 January 1888 in Madrid. He worked as a highway engineer before the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), and wrote several technical books. He became a professor at the Escuela de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos (School of Engineering of Roads, Canals and Ports). In December 1933 he was elected to the Royal Academy of Sciences (Real Academia de Ciencias), where he delivered a talk in June 1934 on The Resonance of Structures.

In 1934 Manuel Sánchez Arcas and Eduardo Torroja founded the Instituto Técnico de la Construcción y Edificación (ITCE, Technical Institute of Construction and Building). Other founding members were the architect Modesto López Otero (1885–1962) and the engineers José María Aguirre Gonzalo (1897–1988) and Alfonso Peña Boeuf. The ITCE was a non-profit organization dedicated to developing and applying technical innovations in engineering civil structures.

Peña Boeuf became highly respected as a civil engineer. In October 1937 Franco asked him to prepare a General Plan for Public Works, much of which would be concerned with hydraulic projects. The proposed framework was similar to the 1933 National Hydrological Plan, but placed more emphasis on national control to support self-sufficient development. In his 1940 Plan of Public Works Peña Boeuf noted of the 1933 hydrological plan that, "Its fundamental and foundational work will be very useful, and we believe that this must continue and be updated and amended if required."

Minister of Public Works
General Francisco Franco appointed Peña Boeuf Minister of Public Works towards the end of the Civil War. He held this portfolio for three more cabinets. He was Minister of Public Works from 30 January 1938 to 18 July 1945, and was a National Councillor in the Cortes for the first eight legislatures. He was sympathetic to the former monarchy, but saw himself as a "technician" rather a politician. Peña Boeuf devoted most of his energy to rebuilding the roads and railways that had been destroyed during the war. He and Ramón Serrano Suñer were the only two ministers to remain in office when Franco overhauled his cabinet in August 1939. Franco tightened his control while presenting a fascist image that would be acceptable to Hitler and Mussolini, whom he assumed would win the European war that was about to start.

Peña's Public Works plan was officially approved in 1941, including a new law allowing land appropriation for public utilities, and was broadly followed over the years that followed. However, lack of finance prevented full implementation of the promised hydrological revolution. The main objective of the Peña Plan, a massive construction program of dams, reservoirs and canals, was to serve industry with hydroelectricity. It also provided large benefits to agriculture in line with the regime's autarkic policy. 29% of land had been irrigated in 1932. This had risen to 40% by 1965. In 1940 Peña and Gregorio Pérez Conesa, Director General of Railways, inaugurated the section of line from Alcañiz to Tortosa. During Peña's tenure the National Network of Spanish Railways (RENFE, Red Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Españoles) was established in 1941 through which the state consolidated control of the main broad-gauge railway companies and rebuilt infrastructure damaged during the civil war.

Later career
After leaving the ministry in July 1945 Peña Boeuf was made president of RENFE. Peña Boeuf was librarian of the Royal Academy of Sciences from 1939 to 1944 and vice-president from 1944 to 1958. On 11 June 1958 he became president of the Royal Academy of Sciences, holding this position until his death in 1966. In 1971 the Avenida de Alfonso Peña Boeuf in Madrid was named in his memory.