Although the design of a site investigation programme should ideally be

carried out by a soil mechanics specialist, this is not always the case in
practice. The standard of practice ranges from services offered by reputable
companies with considerable expertise and experience to companies that do
not appreciate the risks and economic implications that arise from poor or
inaccurate ground evaluation.
In an area where expertise is of ultimate importance, codes of practice are
intended to provide guidance on the practical aspects of the field work.
Codes and recommendations should be viewed as the sum of experience
and consensus of opinion of a group of experts with respect to techniques
and procedures in a given subject. These recommendations help in defining
the content and number of tests necessary to establish the compatibility of
Figure 1.8 Mini-crawler (courtesy of A.P. van den Berg).Introduction 11
the site with the proposed construction, bearing in mind that expenditure
generally increases with larger projects and more difficult site conditions.
Engineers are always struggling with the balance between efficiency and
economy. This balance, recognized early on by Peck (1969), is now incorporated into codes of
practice such as the Eurocode. Peck stated that investigation methods form three broad groups