Our society can benefit from the enormous resource beneath our feet. Underground construction involves creating space for many vital functions that do not necessarily need to take up space above ground, such as transport systems, storages, energy facilities and wastewater treatment plants. Entertainment events and other arrangements can also be held in the unique underground environment.
Sweden has led the world in underground construction – let us introduce the underground resource by presenting some interesting and successful examples of underground civil engineering
Benefits for building facilities underground
Most underground facilities concern infrastructure of various types that utilise underground space in a rather traditional way, such as the metro system in Stockholm, road and rail tunnels, wastewater tunnels, and rock caverns containing wastewater treatment plants or district heating production facilities. However, the underground resource is now being used in other ways, with facilities such as museums, archives, data centres and car parks.