Solving univariate polynomials and operations with real algebraic numbers are critical in geometric computing with curved objects. Moreover, the real roots need to be computed in a certified way in order to avoid possible inconsistency in geometric algorithms. We present a CGAL-based univariate algebraic kernel, which follows the CGAL~specifications for univariate kernels. It provides certified real-root isolation of univariate polynomials with integer coefficients (based on the library \rs) and standard functionalities such as basic arithmetic operations, gcd and square-free factorization, as well as comparison and sign evaluations of real algebraic numbers. We compare our implementation with the univariate algebraic kernel developed at MPII, that also follows CGAL~specifications, on various data sets, using polynomials of degree up to 2 000 and maximum coefficient bit-size up to 25 000. Finally we apply our kernel to the computation of arrangements of univariate polynomial functions, and we present a bit complexity analysis of the algorithm for computing the arrangement of planar curves defined by univariate polynomials.