Urban development involves substantial work on underground utility networks such as drinking water, wastewater, rainwater, gas, electricity, telephone and cable systems. Such work is carried out in complex environments and causes considerable disruption for the surrounding community. Any technical solution capable of reducing the duration and level of inconvenience caused by such works is therefore welcome. With Recycan®, Eurovia adds a further product to its range of trench backfill materials initiated by the highly innovative Autocan® and Scorcan® products.

1. TRENCH BACKFILL
MADE OF SITE-EXCAVATED MATERIALS
RECYCAN
®
Nothing is lost,
everything is processed

2. RECYCAN®
TRENCH BACKFILL MADE OF SITE-EXCAVATED
MATERIALS
Urban development involves substantial work on underground utility networks such as drinking
water, wastewater, rainwater, gas, electricity, telephone and cable systems. Such work is carried out
in complex environments and causes considerable disruption for the surrounding community.
Any technical solution capable of reducing the duration and level of inconvenience caused by such
works is therefore welcome. With Recycan®, Eurovia adds a further product to its range of trench
backfill materials initiated by the highly innovative Autocan® and Scorcan® products.
Recycan® offers a durable, high-performance solution for such works by treating low-quality
excavated materials to produce high-quality, self-placing and re-excavatable materials directly
at the worksite, thus substantially reducing the handling and transport of conventional excavated
materials / backfill.
key benefits
key figures
R
apid re-trafficking
C
onservation of natural aggregates
S
ubstantial reduction in transport
70% reduction
in transport of materials
to and from the worksite
E
cological solution
L
imited disruption
H
igh added value backfill
3 to 4 hours
to re-traffic
Patented since 2001

3. A MATERIAL FOR THE
FUTURE - now !
Recycan®, an ecological backfill, is part of Eurovia’s
sustainable development programme aimed at:
recycling materials previously landfilled
conserving natural aggregates
reducing materials transport
eliminating differential settling, which causes
cracking, through use of self-placing material
without shrinkage
accommodating future works through use of re
excavatable material.
trench backfilling. It is non-drying and does not
release water during setting. It can be used in all
ground geometries.
The French Certu Trench Backfill nomenclature
classifies it as “easy” to “moderately easy” to
excavate.
everyone
benefits!
Recycan® also offers all the advantages of
Autocan® and Scorcan® type materials, such
as trench width reduction, safety of worksite
personnel, high-quality backfill, reduced disruption,
mechanical strength, incompressibility and
excavatability.
Local residents living near the
Recycan® is a grout produced by treating materials
excavated from a trench with cement, which is
subsequently used as a trench backfill. The material
is produced directly on the worksite using specially
designed equipment.
so that worksites can be smaller,
Recycan® is thixotropic and fluid during placement
and requires no compaction. It offers continuous
and uniform pipe bedding and homogeneous
worksite particularly appreciate
Recycan®, which sharply reduces
truck traffic (70% less traffic than
a conventional trench fill worksite).
It requires no intermediate storage,
and it can be applied without noise
or vibrations (no compaction).
Customers also appreciate the fact
that Recycan® saves materials and
cuts time to completion.

4. Recycan® requires good knowledge of the existing
material. Prior test coring is carried out to
determine its geotechnical characteristics – type,
grading, presence of large chunks, water content
and clay content. Most fine soils (loam, clay, clayey
sands, etc.) categorised in Class A of the 1992
“Backfilling and Capping Layers” Technical Guide
lend themselves to the production of Recycan®.
Recycan is formulated to be fluid enough to be
pumped and to properly embed the pipes. It must
have sufficient mechanical strength to enable the
road to be rapidly re-trafficked without cracking
or shrinking and it must withstand traffic while
remaining excavatable.
®
Pumpability of the grout and pipe bedding
Abrams cone slump (EN 12350-2)
120 mm
Time to re-trafficking
On-site bearing factor (EN 13286-47)
at 24 hours
10
Excavatability and water resistance
Compressive strength (EN 13286-41)
at 28 days
at 90 days
These conditions prompt the use of a cement of
high strength class and high strength at young age,
with a dosage of at least 7% and water content of
40 to 50%.
Short synthetic fibres are added to promote
thixotropy and prevent plastic shrinkage cracking.
E
FFICIENT PRODUCTION
AT THE WORKSITE
To produce the material, Eurovia has designed
compact, highly mobile equipment that takes up
little space on worksites, which are generally carried
out in dense urban environments. The recycling unit
includes a receiving hopper into which materials
are fed directly by the shovel digging the trench or
from temporary storage in a container. The material
is sieved and clumps are broken up to a uniform
0/40 mm grading and then mixed with cement and
the amount of water needed to achieve the desired
consistency. The cement is supplied in sealed
containers to avoid airborne dust. The mixture is
produced in 1 m3 batches. Recycan® is produced at
a rate of about 40 to 50 m3/day. A concrete pump
and hoses are used to transport it to the area where
it is to be applied over a distance that can exceed
60 metres. It is gravity placed.
1.3 MPa
2 MPa
Compressive strength following immersion
CSi 60 days / CS 60 days
0.6
Recycan® is patented.
Recycan® is a registered trademark.
TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT
18, place de l’Europe - 92565 Rueil-Malmaison Cedex
Tel. : 33 (0)1 47 16 38 00 - Fax : 33 (0)1 47 16 38 01
www.eurovia.com
technique@eurovia.com
- May 2010 - photos credit : photolibrary Eurovia
S
IMPLICITy and
PERFORMANCE