spadework

noun

1. (uncountable)Work done by digging with a spade.

   “It is this help that the present book attempts to give, and the moment of its appearance, during a partial lull of excavation, is an opportune one. There is a chance to take breath and gather up the threads, with the possibility that the next month's spade-work will not put us out of date.”

2. (figuratively, uncountable)Work done in preparation for something else.

   “There's a lot of spadework to be done before the scheme can be implemented.”

   “Some essential spadework, on which certain details of the plan will be founded, is yet unfinished.”