Fernando Luiz Cumplido Mac Dowell da Costa (July 7, 1945 – May 20, 2018) was a Brazilian engineer and politician. He worked in several governments in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, always defending the accomplishment of great interventions in the urbanism of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. He was one of the critics of the transport system of Rio de Janeiro during the government of

Sérgio Cabral Sergius is a male given name of Ancient Roman origin after the name of the Latin ''gens'' Sergia or Sergii of regal and republican ages. It is a common Christian name, in honor of Saint Sergius, or in Russia, of Saint Sergius of Radonezh, and h ...

Career

He worked at GEIPOT, a transport company created in 1965 by the military regime. He graduated in engineering from the

University of the State of Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ; pt, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro) is a public research university in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is one of the largest and most prestigious universities in the country. The universit ...

(UERJ) in 1969 and soon afterwards became a professor at the same university. In the 1980s, he was director of the

Carioca Carioca ( or ) is a demonym used to refer to anything related to the City of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. The original meaning of the term is controversial, maybe from Tupi language "''kari' oka''", meaning "white house" as the whitewashed stone ...

subway, when line 1 began to function during the term of Chagas Freitas as governor of the state. He was president of Emop during the government of

Moreira Franco Wellington Moreira Franco (; born October 19, 1944) is a Brazilian politician who served as the 54th Governor of Rio de Janeiro from 1987 to 1991 and Minister of Mines and Energy in 2018. He is a member of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB ...

and was considered a candidate for his succession, but he affirmed to have broken with the latter due to the fact that the government tried to inaugurate the Viaduto do Joa without it being in conditions. He also participated in the second government of

Leonel Brizola Leonel de Moura Brizola (22 January 1922 – 21 June 2004) was a Brazilian politician. Launched into politics by Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas in the 1930–1950s, Brizola was the only politician to serve as elected governor of two Brazi ...

, from 1991 to 1994, being an arduous defender of the

subway system Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be c ...

. Also participated in the construction of the Red Line. Recognized as one of the greatest experts in the area in the country, he made several criticisms of Brazil's subway systems, even saying in 2009 that "metro in Brazil only exists in São Paulo, Rio and Distrito Federal." Also made several critics to the works of expansion of the subway realized during the government of Sérgio Cabral. In 2015, it visited ghost stations, that affirmed that they had been ready since the decade of 1980, but that never they were inaugurated. He joined the Liberal Party (PL) in the decade of 2010 and was elected vice mayor of Rio de Janeiro in the 2016 elections, on the plate of

Marcelo Crivella Marcelo Bezerra Crivella (; born 9 October 1957) is a Brazilian Evangelical pastor, gospel singer and politician. He served as the Mayor of the city of Rio de Janeiro from 1 January 2017 until 31 December 2020. In the 2020 Rio de Janeiro mayora ...

Death

He died on May 20, 2018, of a heart attack at age 72. The mayor of Rio de Janeiro decreed official mourning of three days for his death. After his death, an important highway in Rio de Janeiro city was renamed after him, the

Lagoa–Barra Highway The Lagoa–Barra Highway (Portuguese:''Autoestrada Lagoa–Barra''), officially named Engenheiro Fernando Mac Dowell Highway in honour of Fernando Mac Dowell, is a highway linking Gávea and Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , ...

as Engenheiro Fernando Mac Dowell Highway ("Engenheiro" means Engineer in Portuguese).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:MacDowell, Fernando 1945 births 2018 deaths Brazilian engineers People from Rio de Janeiro (city) Liberal Party (Brazil, 2006) politicians