The panel of the Leonardo Award, a distinction given by the INTIC -Innovation and New Technologies in Civil Engineering- Network in cooperation with Revista de Obras Públicas, has decided unanimously to confer its prize for 2010 to the article entitled, "Construcción de presas en el exterior. Periodo entre Congresos Barcelona 2006 y Brasilia 2009" -"Dam Construction Abroad. Period Between 2006 Barcelona Conferences and Brasilia 2009"-. The article is a joint effort written by civil engineer Víctor Flórez Casillas, who is the manager of the Hydraulic Works and Marine Construction Department of FCC Construcción, Antonio Capote of Ferrovial and Fernando Abadía from Dragados, and it was published in the "Civil Engineering Science and Technology" section of Revista de Obras Públicas.

The award-winning article describes the main features of three dams already built or in the process of being built by Spanish firms abroad. One of them is the dam built by FCC subsidiary Alpine in Tsankov Kamak, Bulgaria. This is a dome dam that stands 130.5 metres tall, measured from its foundations. It has a maximum width of 27.6 metres at its base and 8.8 metres at its crown.

The site lies 250 kilometres southwest of Sofia, near Smolyan, in the Rhodope massif on the border with Greece, on the Vacha River, and it belongs to the Dospat-Vacha Cascade.

With the construction of this dam, the hydroelectric system's generating capacity has been boosted by 48% (188 GWh/year) to 570 GWh/year. The Tsankov Kamak hydroelectric power plant will generate 85 MW with a useful head of around 137 metres.

The panel judging the first Leonardo Award highlighted the great effort Spanish construction firms are putting into exporting and innovation.