This article presents the results of the study of changes in mineral and chemical composition of artificial aggregates consisting of coal shale (a hard coal mining waste) and fluidized ashes. Such an aggregate was used for road construction. After completion of the construction works but before making the road available for public use, significant deformation of the surface in the form of irregular buckling of the asphalt layer occurred. It was excluded that this resulted from mining damage, design errors or performance mistakes, among others. A study of the materials that had been incorporated in the construction layers was undertaken in order to find the component and the mechanism responsible for the buckling of the road surface. A comparison of the mineral and chemical composition of aggregate samples collected from the embankment where the road buckled with the reference sample and samples from places without deformations showed that the bumps in the road embankment consisted of minerals that were not initially present in the aggregate. Wastes produced as a result of high temperatures (slag and power plants ashes, metallurgical wastes) are not as stable in terms of chemical and phase composition in the hypergenic environment. As a result of the processes occurring in the road embankment, anhydrite, which is the primary component of fluidized ashes, was transformed into gypsum and ettringite. As a result of contact with water CaO (present in fluidized ashes) easily changed into calcium hydroxide. As the crystallization of these minerals is expansive, it resulted in the filling of pores and, in extreme cases, in a substantial increase in the volume of the aggregate and, consequently, in the deformation of the road surface.

Self – Levelling Underlayment (SLU) is one of the high-performance new materials used in the construction industry. Besides the strength, other characteristics of SLU such as workability, rapid drying, rapid hardening, shrinkage compensation, smooth nature, etc. are required depending on the application. The aim of this study is to evaluate the structuration with the time of SLU through some important characteristics such as the evolution of rheological properties, ettringite, and gibbsite phase development. To this purpose, a rheometer with rotation mode and oscillation mode was used to determine the yield stress, plastic viscosity, rheological dynamic modulus (storage modulus and loss modulus). The use of these techniques is considered to be a method for monitoring structuration development in cement materials. The result shows that during the hydration process, increased plastic viscosity, yield stress, and dynamic modulus of the SLU were identified from just 5 minutes after mixing until the setting period when the transition from a fluid state to a solid-state of SLU takes place. By using a rheometer in oscillation mode, the beginning of the transition process from the liquid-state to the solid-state of SLU was identified, this method is more precise when compared to traditional Vicat method.

Engineering activity may lead to uncontrolled changes in the geological environment. This paper presents an example of structural changes in fluvial sand of the Praski terrace (in Warsaw) caused by the activity of a temporary concrete batching plant. Our investigations made it possible to identify the material responsible for the structural anomalies observed in the bottom of the trench excavation. The compound responsible for the cementation phenomenon was identified as ettringite – hydrated calcium aluminosulphate: Ca ₆Al ₂[(OH) ₁₂(SO ₄) ₃]·26H ₂O. The source of ettringite were most probably significant volumes of contaminants coming from the temporary concrete batching plant (e.g., from the rinsing of concrete mixers and/or installations for concrete storage and transportation). While penetrating into the ground, ettringite caused extensive cementation of the soil mass, mainly in the saturation zone. As a result, the mineral (chemical) composition of the inter-grain space changed and the structure of the sand was strengthened. The estimated zone of volumetric changes in soil properties was about 6 thousand m ³. However, analysis of the chemical composition of groundwater for its potential sulphate contamination, did not reveal any anomalous concentrations of sulphates.