Much of the infrastructure of modern society is buried below ground. Pipeline, conduits and culverts carry the services on which our economies depend and the strength and resilience of such structures is of vital importance. Larger underground construction is becoming more common in cities and towns, and in defence installations.

This book brings together the store of theoretical, analytical, experimental and design-based knowledge that has been built up on the subject of buried structures.

The author discusses the principles of soil arching, stress distribution and soil properties, as well as the design problems of static and dynamic loads, strength and safety. The stability of thin-walled buried structures receives particular attention, as does the behaviour of underground construction under localized and nuclear explosions. Test facilities and design codes of practice are reviewed, and the range of structures discussed in the book extends from thick- and thin-walled culverts, conduits and water pipelines to arches, domes, spherical shells, vertical capsules, blast shelters and thin-walled road tunnels.