A "holy war" between large Cagliari families, a very harsh appeal on airport poisons and omissions put in black and white complete with a notary seal, real estate deals, public & private intrigues. The old Fas, the Ferriere Acciaierie Sarde, at the entrance to Cagliari airport, is no longer there. Razed to the ground, disappeared like snow in the sun, 62 years after the beginning of that metallurgical history. Since 1994 it had stopped churning out iron and steel, becoming over the years a pile of poisons and a ruin of industrial archaeology.
Elmas Atocha demolished
Stuff to make the ancient and imposing Atocha train station, in the heart of Madrid, envious, according to the creators of the first conversion plan of the building. And, to tell the truth, the first project, the one initially authorised, in force until a few months ago, envisaged the protection and valorisation of those "identity-industrial" buildings. Then, however, in recent months, out of the blue, the sudden change of strategy and project: from an "archaeological" asset to be subjected to "protection" to a useless building to be demolished without wasting too much time. So it was. Almost with a blitz, lightning-fast, without second thoughts, in an instant thousands of cubic meters were transformed into a forty-hectare clearing, between the airport and the first gate of Cagliari, the one towards Elmas. After all, there was no time to waste: on that stage loom the large commercial chains, from Ikea to Leroy Merlin, all ready to devour new spaces and revenues at full speed. Behind this story, however, lie many mysteries and a thousand questions.
The open chapters
There are environmental issues, first of all. However, airport issues are also looming, with all the implications linked to the compatibility of the area with a shopping center of that size, the obvious overlaps of traffic flows at the entrance to the regional capital are advancing without hesitation, such as to constitute a barrier of cars and vehicles destined to forever influence the connection of the metropolitan area with the most important infrastructure on the island, the Cagliari airport. In short, there is enough to have to deal with the authorization documents, the bureaucratic process, the project upheaval and the contradictory positions expressed by the competent bodies, first very rigid in denying authorizations and then, instead, ready to grant everything and more . There are many documents that dot the controversial history of this colossal deal to be consummated on the outskirts of Cagliari. An urban building intervention destined to forever overturn a delicate and sensitive area, such as the entrance to a large city. There are at least four indelible acts that shine the spotlight on this operation. The first: the request for project alteration forwarded to the Region by "Villa del Mas", the company that owns that area and what were the Fas buildings, presented on 19 May last year. The second: the very heavy initial judgment of the Region's officials on that project of radical modification of the plan. The third: the very harsh opposition presented by another company which denounces all the risks of that new project. The fourth: an initial and formal refusal by ENAC to offload the traffic of the future shopping center onto the airport's "emergency" road, so to speak the one where the emergency vehicles would have to pass in the event of an accident with the sudden change of position of the state body. Chapters with many paragraphs and infinite interests, all put in black and white, documented and verified.
