There have been a number of case studies using lime piles as a means of ground improvement. It is used a lot in northern Europe, and in particular in Norway for treating peat soils believe it or not!!. There were a couple of section of the CTRL (Channel Tunnel Rail Link) bewteen Dover and London where lime piles were used to cross peat/bogs for the construction of the rail embankment on top. I have got saved somewhere a couple of case studies of this, [plus the name of the Norwegian Company who did the work], but I changed jobs recently so will have to track the info down.
As for use in structures, we did look at using them or something similar on a project where we were looking to improve the performance of PFA Lagoons, with the idea that the lime could act as a catalyst and aid the stabilisation of the PFA. However no Contractor was willing to put their name to it so it never got past the Blue Sky thinking phase and on to the drawing board, never mind off of it!
Other than that, back in the early 90's we did use augered columns of lime as a means of pre-treating soil with the binder, before excavation and stockpiling. This was done in this manner as the bulk soils were required to be stored for around 18 months before use, and there was a risk of sulfate attack. The lime was added in this manner, soils excavated (which mixed the lime throughout the soil) and stockpiled with the sulfate and lime left to react. 18 months later checks carried out to see if there was any future potential expansion, and when the soils were cleared, they were re-engineered back in as 'modified' soils (not stabilised).
There has not been much use of this type of technique, probably because not only is it relatively unproven, but simiar ground improvement methods, such as vibro-stone or vibro-concrete are not much more expensive, have less risk (sulfate attack) and have been used for a long time (civil engineering can be conservative)
One thing to note if you are considering this, is to get a complete vertical profile of the sulfates in the ground, and in particular between the weathered and unweathered zones.