On Minimizing the Land Used by Automobiles and Buses in the Urban Central Core: Underground Highways and Parking Facilites

摘要

Possibilities for reducing the land used for urban transportation in the central city core by providing ample automotive access with deep underground tunnels and parking areas are examined. The cost of conventional urban highways built through densely populated areas is described in terms of construction costs, right-of-way acquisition costs, and selected operating expenditures. Construction and ventilating costs of vehicular tunnels are presented. Beside this economic advantage of subterranean vehicular tubes, some design features of underground construction and travel are next considered, such as tunneling machines, rock removal, prefabricated lining and roadways, adaptability to mass-transit systems, land reclamation, traffic control, and obstacle removal. The study considers what may be needed if all mass-transit ridership were hypothetically transferred to passenger cars in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Manhattan. Recommendations are given for study of the underground-highway concept and developments of prototype machines capable of rapid excavation of vehicular tunnels under most rock conditions. (Author)