Beginning of the activity reported to the activity of its founder, Engineer Ricardo Esquível Teixeira Duarte

On October 15, 1886, Ricardo Esquível Teixeira Duarte was born. A day that, every year, Teixeira Duarte celebrates as Company Day.

Student of the Escola Politécnica from July 1909 to October 1911, he transferred that year to the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), created that year, where, with no. 189, he finished his degree in civil engineering on 7 August 1915.

He worked in public entities in the area of engineering, and as a sole proprietor he started his activity with artesian boreholes and water abstraction and small civil construction works.

In 1921 he had his offices at Rua da Palma nº 161, 1º Esq., in Lisbon and was also partner and manager of the "Sociedade Portuguesa de Engenharia Lda.".

He then pursued his purpose of specialising in hydrology and geotechnics, including geological surveys, water surveys and abstraction, foundations and hydraulic and underground works, as well as the development of soil mechanics.

It was in this context that, in 1934, he founded "Empresa de Sondagens e Fundações, Lda.", which would give rise, in 1987, to "Teixeira Duarte - Engenharia e Construções, S.A.".

Since 1945 he held various positions in the Order of Engineers, having been President (Bastonário) between 1950 and 1952.

He died on 1 June 1959, having been succeeded by his son, also a Civil Engineer, Pedro Pereira Coutinho Teixeira Duarte.