Tunnel construction, structural diaphragms, debris from quarry exploitation require careful consideration of the spoil management, as this involves environmental, economic and legal requirements. In this paper a classification that considers the interaction between technical and geological factors in determining the features of the resulting muck is proposed. This gives indications about the required treatments as well as laboratory and field characterisation tests to be performed to assess muck recovery alternatives. While this reuse is an opportunity for excavations in good quality homogeneous grounds (e.g. granitic mass), it is critical for complex formation. It is therefore necessary to define a procedure that enables to assess the properties of
natural ground and of the relative spoil or waste arising from the excavation or exploitation phases. This approach is presented in this paper for usual tunnelling cases, where the materials are resulting from the tunnel excavation carried out by drill and blasting and mechanised tunnelling.
Physical parameters and technological features of the materials have to be assessed, according to their valorisation potential, for defining re-utilisation patterns. The methodology has proved to be effective in some cases tested by the Authors and the laboratory tests carried out on the materials
allowed the suitability and treatment effectiveness for each muck recovery strategy to be defined
