ctnow.com: BUSINESS ICFs are reinforced Styrofoam blocks that are fit together and then filled with concrete. The Styrofoam blocks serve as insulation, and interior and exterior wall surfaces are attached right onto the blocks, eliminating the need for traditional wood framing, or studs.
"Northeastern home builders are very conservative," Langlois said. "They're not backward, by any means, but they're slow in accepting change. They're not like their California counterparts."
A hopeful sign for the concrete industry has come from the United Brotherhood of Carpenters which recently began using ICFs as a training tool for its apprentices, he said.
Boston Globe Online / 'Big Dug' With mega-project winding down, thousands have gotten pink slips
Union official Bill Ryan once had a simple way to measure the Big Dig's impact that didn't include the project's cavernous tunnels or towering cranes. He would glance at the parking lot outside Florian Hall in Dorchester during meetings of Local 4 of the International Union of Operating Engineers.
It would be packed with a gleaming fleet of accessory-laden pickup trucks bought by younger union members who ran the project's cranes and earth movers when it seemed the good times of steady work and income-fattening overtime would never end.