Abstract: Strong dense shaped articles such as pellets suitable for use as gravel substitutes are produced by the described method from solid fly ash-containing water materials obtained by a lime based dry scrubbing flue gas desulfurization operation. In this method the dry ash-containing waste powder, which also contains calcium sulfite or sulfate reaction products and unreacted lime, is first uniformly contacted with a critical amount of water and then immediately compacted at a critical compaction ratio to provide a handleable green body in which the fly ash particles are positioned with respect to one another so that the interstitial spaces are sufficient to accommodate the volumetric changes in wthe cementitious materials without any deleterious expansion of the article as the article is cured.