Use of construction and demolition solid wastes for basket gabion filling.

ABSTRACT

Construction and demolition wastes have been studied by technical means aiming at the development of management tools to reduce their environmental impacts. Among these, recycling can be highlighted. This paper aims at the technical assessment of basket gabions filled with construction and demolition solid waste. Gabions are usually used for retaining walls construction, and these are commonly filled with rocks. Retaining walls are essential for earthfill slopes stabilization, and they must have proper characteristics of strength. However, depending on the slope height or the technical responsibility of the retaining wall, alternative materials with proper characteristics could be used to fill the gabions. The use of recycled material for gabion filling could reduce environmental impacts and costs caused by retaining wall construction. So, basket gabion cells were filled with construction solid waste and basaltic rocks, both crushed into coarse granulometry aiming to compare technical characteristics among them. The performed laboratory tests showed that the horizontal and vertical displacements determined for gabion filled with wastes were near to those obtained for gabions filled with basaltic rocks for a retaining wall of 5 m and up. In conclusion, it can be drawn that basket gabions filled with construction and demolition waste may be a technical alternative for civil construction, reducing environmental impacts and raw material consumption for retaining wall execution.