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Increasing demand for infrastructures requires innovative, cheap and environmental sustainable practices in construction. The soils which are available on site for linear embankments often need to be improved to satisfy the necessary performance and strength requirements. A bio-improvement is evaluated here, for use in compacted earth construction. To the aim of sustainability and cost reduction, a soft technique was chosen by the industrial party, which consisted in adding bacteria to a superficial soil retrieved in situ, and letting them precipitate calcium carbonate with the aid of the nutrients available in the organic matter of the soil and in the compaction water. The effects of the soft biological treatment on silty clayey sand were studied systematically in a comprehensive laboratory investigation, focused on the properties mostly affecting the performance of earth constructions: compaction energy, water …