Recently, a number of important changes have taken place with regard to the design of piles and micropiles in Belgium.
A revision of the national annex of the Eurocode 7 was published, namely NBN EN 1997-1 ANB: 2022, which in turn refers to Buildwise Report 20 for the design of piles and micropiles.
In Buildwise Report 20, installation factors, model factors and partial safety measures are proposed for the various pile (sub)categories. No differentiation has been made in all these design factors, in contrast to previous versions (especially Buildwise Reports 12 and 19).
This means that for a specific pile system it is only possible to deviate from the design factors from Buildwide Report 20 if the pile system in question has a Technical Approval, ATG, with certification (or equivalent), in which the design factors and preconditions applicable to this pile system are specified.
The pile foundation companies responded in great numbers to this call, which means that many pile systems are currently being treated in parallel by the UBAtc and BCCA.
In a first phase, the ATG applications for soil-displacing screw pile systems will be assessed. The technical approvals will be published shortly.
The other pile systems will be discussed in a next phase.
More information is provided in the UBAtc Info sheet “Design of piles and micropiles”
