Laura Lopez | Valsaín (Segovia) (EFE) industrialized wooden houses.
As Javier Donés, who was director of the Montes de Valsaín Center until last December, explained in an interview with Agencia EFE, the sawmill stopped working in 2012, after the 2008 crisis drowned its recovery from a terrible fire occurred in 2005.
The Valsaín sawmill had worked well since it was remodeled and automated in 1985 into a new factory, modern for the time, installed in a warehouse built in 1952 next to the original, from the 19th century.
As Donés has recounted, on October 1, 2005, a welding spark fell into a pile of sawdust and started a raging fire that ended with all the machinery turned into scrap metal and even the structure of the ship damaged: “We had a magnificent night ”, ironized the former director.
On top of the ashes, a completely new sawmill was projected, which started up in 2010 without much success, since in five years of hiatus it had lost its clientele and the cuts derived from the 2008 and 2009 crisis had left the National Parks budget to less than half.
Once the sawmill stopped its activity in 2012, National Parks tried to give way to the historic facility, with calls for its concession to a private company in 2013 and 2014 that were unsuccessful.
In 2015 a joint venture tried to relaunch the activity but failed and in 2017 the contract was terminated; They kept trying with practically one call a year in which either no companies were present or they did not meet the requirements until finally last year one won the contest.
On March 7, eleven years of emptiness came to an end with the signing of the certificate of delivery of the public concession for the next 25 years to the Barcelona company Arquima, a pioneer in the industrialized construction of houses based on light wooden frameworks.
The former director of the Valsaín Forest Center is pleased to have finally managed to leave the future of the sawmill “resolved” before his retirement, formalized last December 2022 after more than thirty years in office.
For the municipality, this new stage will serve to create direct and indirect jobs: “Given the opportunity to take advantage of a facility like this and improve rural employment, of course the administration cannot remain blind, it has to respond,” said Donés. .
From the Valsaín sawmill to Barcelona
Arquima is in the midst of an expansion phase: in 2022 its turnover increased by 30 percent compared to 2021 to eight million euros and its forecasts for this 2023 is to reach 30 million and they have 45 workers on staff, but they expect double this figure before the end of the year.
As explained in another interview by the company’s Director of Marketing and Communication, Stefano Carlo Ascione, with this concession they manage to incorporate the sawmill phase into their activity to control the entire process, from the treatment of the wood to the assembly “in situ”. ” of the houses.
In addition, in this way they hope to reduce the CO2 emissions derived from their transport activity, since until now they used wood from Austria and France and in this way they will be able to supply themselves with national wood for their factory, located in the town of Open (Barcelona).
In Valsaín, the trunks will be stripped and cut into planks and the waste resulting from the pruning and cutting of the branches, once crushed and mixed with water, will be used to make a kind of pulp that serves as thermal insulation for future homes. .
The Royal Workshop of Aserrio from 1884, under restoration
The Royal Mechanical Saw Workshop, located in an old warehouse that is not part of the concession, was declared a Site of Cultural Interest last year in the Monument category for its historical and industrial interest.
At this time, National Parks is waiting to receive the restoration works that have been carried out at a cost of about 600,000 euros in order to open this space to the public for visits.
For Javier Donés, who promoted this declaration as head of the Center, this workshop is a unique example of Spanish industrial archeology of wood, which is worth visiting along with others in the area, such as the Royal Mint in Segovia or the Royal Factory of Crystals of La Granja. EFE