NRMCA Senior Director, National Resources, Doug O’Neill reports on how Producer member CalPortland succeeded in convincing a NAPA Auto Parts store owner in its Northwest Region of concrete's versatility and construction cost savings. The story begins 10 years ago when the store owner built one NAPA outlet with Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF). The owner of several of the auto parts chain's stores in the Portland, OR, area wanted to use ICF to build his newest store, O'Neill said. The general contractor he selected had never built with ICF, but remarked, "this material was easy to build with and we completed the structure and insulation all in one step, accelerating the schedule. With the energy savings and sound suppression, I wonder why we don’t do more of these".

The resulting 11,300 square foot building was completed in just three weeks using ICF construction and a four-man crew. After a recommendation from the civil engineer and a meeting with CalPortland staff, the owner then decided to use pervious concrete for the entire parking lot (shown at right), which totaled 750 cubic yards. By using pervious, the owner was able to eliminate all catch basins and other stormwater management schemes for a significant savings, noted O'Neill.

"This is a great story of how concrete can be a solution and how communication among a civil engineer, ready mix producer and an owner can help establish concrete as the material of choice," he said.

For more information, contact Doug O’Neill at doneill@nrmca.org.