In relation to how the building codes and standards affect the practice and the difference between codified piling and (still) not codified ground improvement, one thing is important. Pilling codes have long history. They have been around for decades and usually were developed in times when ground investigation techniques and methods of analysis were not so advanced. Thus, piling was associated with high level of conservatism. Once established, conservatism in the code is hard to get rid of. Ground improvement techniques did not suffer from the excessive conservatism. Therefore, codifying their design now should not be a problem (it might be after few decades, though). Currently, in Europe, we are developing the new Eurocode 7: Geotechnical Design code with addition of some new sections, one of them on ground improvement. Not surprisingly, people from companies like Menard, Keller, etc., are spearheading the development of this section. In code development, this is the best way to go, various stakeholders finding a common ground to what are the minimum and essential requirements that do not prevent competition, but foster sticking to the state-of-the-art in the industry (and to provide public authorities with reference documents they need).

Finally found this. Loved the Mt Sinai reference!

good job

Sir what is DGE? Why one becomes DGE? What additional advantage it gives?