After having negotiated with several French engineers in 1852, the Governor of Cuba José Gutiérrez de la Concha decided to create a commission to propose solutions for the water supply.

The commission was to be chaired by Francisco de Albear, at that time colonel of the Corps of Engineers of the Spanish army and chairman of the Public Works Committee of Cuba.

[1] However, it was only in 1855, that a second commission, chaired also by Francisco de Albear, started extensive geological and hydrological field surveys, to ascertain that the springs had the capacity to cover the water requirements of the city.

It should be taken into account that, according to the standards in force at the time the canal was designed, the water requirement was of 500 litres per day per inhabitant In 1861, the construction started under the direction of Francisco de Albear.

Work on the water distribution network started only in 1874 when Francisco de Albear made the first complete topographic survey of Havana and produced a 1:5000 plan of the city.

The work was continued under the supervision of Joaquín Ruiz, colonel of the Corps of Engineers who had assisted de Albear.

[8][9] The construction of the last part was contracted with an American company and coordinated by E. Sherman Gould, work started on January 31, 1890.

The third expansion of the aqueduct occurred between 1947 and 1948, directed by the engineer Fernández Simón, and involved the installation of a new 66″ duct diameter between Mazorra and Palatino, passing through Vento, that allowed to drive to the Palatino deposits a flow of forty million gallons per day from Aguada del Cura, which improved the supply of Vedado, Luyanó, the Viper, the Hill and allowed to supply Los Pinos, Arroyo Naranjo and Calvario.

[16] The Albear Aqueduct is still active as it works without electric power and continues using as sole energy the force with which springs from its source.