The world is filled with fascinating manmade underground structures that have captured the imagination of people for centuries. From ancient catacombs to modern subway systems, these underground structures have played a vital role in shaping our cities and societies. However, with the construction and expansion of these structures comes the need for surveying services, particularly in areas with high populations where the probability of placement of pipelines, sewers, and other utilities tends to be higher.

Before carrying out such impactful projects, architects often carry out Drainage Surveys, topographical surveys, and soil surveys (to name a few) in order to determine the condition of the soil, the terrain of the area, and the stability of the structures in the surrounding area. This one step ensures that the foundation of the project would be strong and stable as well as minimize the risk of unexpected problems in the future.

Well, all this pain is worthwhile to make these structures last for years to come and garner innumerous praises. If you’re interested in seeing some of the greatest underground architectural successes that have ever existed, it’s a good idea to look at these six biggest manmade underground structures on the planet.

1. Deepest Subway Station: Arsenalna Station, Kyiv, Ukraine, 346 Feet Below Ground

Subway stations can be extremely deep anywhere, but Arsenalna Station holds the record for the deepest below ground. As a matter of fact, this has happened because of the unique positioning of Arsenala itself. The city is on the top of a tall hill next to a valley. Instead of making the subway go up and down this tall hill every day, the designers for the subway decided to just make it go through the hill.

2. Deepest Basement: Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia, 120 Feet Underground

Most people think of the architectural feats of the aboveground Sydney Opera House when they’re thinking about it. While it’s certainly an extremely beautiful building, that’s not remotely where its beauty ends. The Sydney Opera House also has the world’s deepest basement, which it uses as a parking garage. Plus, the basement utilizes an interesting double helix shape to accommodate fire restrictions.

3. Longest Underground Tunnel: Gotthard Base Tunnel, Erstfeld and Bodio, Switzerland, 35 Miles Long

The Swiss Alps is one of the most beautiful places in Europe, but it’s also a mountain range that can impede travel across it. The Gotthard Base Tunnel is the very first tunnel to go through the Swiss Alps with no elevation change, which means it has to go through the mountains deep underground. It travels for 35 miles without exiting the mountains, with its deepest point over 8,000 feet below the surface.

4. Deepest Building Foundation: Salesforce Tower, San Francisco, United States, 310 Feet Below Ground

Your average house foundation has a depth of around 1.5m, and whilst foundation repair st charles (or wherever you live) might be needed occasionally to fix cracks, a house is really quite light, so deep foundations aren’t needed. Skyscrapers, on the other hand, need extremely large building foundations to ensure they don’t capsize. This is especially true in areas prone to earthquakes. That’s why the designers for the 1,070-foot-tall Salesforce Tower had a huge design challenge ahead of them. They ended up creating this 310-foot foundation, nearly a third of the height of the building itself, and set new benchmarks in terms of seismic safety while they were doing it.

5. Biggest Underground City: Derinkuyu Tunnels, Cappadocia, Turkey, 18 Stories Deep

Underground feats of architectural mastery don’t just date to the present-day. The Derinkuyu tunnels underneath Cappadocia are a great example of this. These tunnels were finished by the 12th century and locals would occasionally use them to hide when battles were happening around them. This continued all the way into the early 1900s, when they were finally abandoned. However, a man rediscovered them in 1963 when he was knocking down a wall in his basement. Today, they’re an extremely interesting tourist attraction underneath the city.

6. Deepest Underground Research Center: Jinping Underground Laboratory, Sichuan, China, 7,900 Feet Deep

Although many experiments can happen aboveground with no problems, extremely sensitive physics experiments can sometimes run into problems aboveground. This is because cosmic radiation can actually have a measurable impact on these experiments. To help with this problem, Chinese scientists have created this underground research center in the middle of a former gold mine. With a depth of nearly 8,000 feet, they can reduce the impact of cosmic radiation by a factor of over 10 million.

Conclusion

There is nothing more fascinating than underground architecture. It takes a lot of skill and knowledge to be able to create underground architectural feats. Therefore, contracts for such projects are usually granted to well-known and dependable businesses such as Lambeth Asphalt Services (a Greensboro paving company) as these firms have a long history of delivering excellent results.

In addition to these magnificent constructions, numerous subterranean structures can be found around the world. If you’re passionate about subterranean architecture, you should explore more about them online. Moreover, even if your house isn’t a record-breaker, it’s essential to take a peek into the underground areas and make sure they are secure.