Underground Roads, Boulevards and Malls To Be Built Underneath Moscow

Moscow may have a twin city that will be built under the ground in the future, architect Sergey Tkachenko said at a news conference.

Photo: Underground Roads, Boulevards and Malls To Be Built Underneath Moscow

“A new city must be built underneath Moscow, although I am not sure how much time it will take. We have been working on the plans, but it’s going to take time, of course,” the official said.

The need to develop Moscow’s underground space is connected with serious problems in the traffic system of the city which makes it impossible to get rid of traffic jams.

“There will be other road systems built under the ground. The underground city will let us minimize the disadvantages that one may encounter on the surface,” he said. “Driving along the underground Moscow, it will be possible to cross the entire territory of the city in an instant,” he added.

The underground city will be built not only for cars, but for pedestrians too.

“We need to give a person a possibility to travel under the ground. There will be pedestrian crossings, boulevards and trade systems built for that,” he said.

The biggest problem of the project is about the geological position of Russia’s capital: Moscow sits on the junction of three geological platforms.

Vadim Mikhailov, a Moscow digger, believes that Mr. Tkachenko should wake up and think real.

“One should not even try to realize extremely dangerous ideas like that before it is too late, for it may lead to catastrophic consequences for Moscow. We’ve already had many sinkhole collapse incidents in Moscow. The market in the Moscow center and the water park collapsed because of the ground displacement, as I see it. Many other incidents of this kind only prove that it will not be possible to ease the traffic situation in Moscow with the help of underground systems,” he said.

Underground tunnels will have to be at least 30 meters in diameter to provide normal conditions for the movement of traffic and pedestrians. Such major interferences may trigger the destruction of deep-seated grounds.

Even if the projects become real, it is a matter of distant future. In the near future, Moscow authorities will only work on the projects of underground parking lots and warehouses.