An underground utility tunnel refers to a public tunnel used in urban underground areas for the centralized laying of municipal pipelines such as electric power, communications, radio and television, water supply, drainage, heating, and gas. It is an important infrastructure for ensuring urban operation. Promoting the construction of urban underground utility tunnels is a major livelihood project of the Party Central Committee and the State Council to meet the requirements of new urbanization, promote stable economic growth, increase the supply of public goods, and accelerate the transformation of urban construction and development modes. It is of great significance for ensuring urban safety, improving urban functions, beautifying urban landscapes, saving land resources, and promoting intensive, efficient, and transformational urban development. In particular, the current promotion of underground utility tunnel construction plays an important role in stimulating investment and maintaining medium-to-high-speed economic growth.

　　I. The Situation Facing the Promotion of Urban Underground Utility Tunnel Construction

　　(1) Insufficient Comprehensive Urban Carrying Capacity Makes It Difficult to Support New Urbanization Development

　　Calculated by permanent residents, China's urbanization rate is currently close to 55%, and the urban permanent population has reached 750 million. The urbanization process has reached a critical stage, objectively requiring cities to achieve a transformation from focusing on increment and speed to focusing more on quality and level under enhanced constraints such as resources, environment, and space, continuously improving comprehensive carrying capacity, and better meeting the basic infrastructure needs of the population.

　　(2) The Urban Construction and Development Mode Is Unsustainable and Urgently Needs Transformation

　　For a long time, China's urban construction has had the problem of "emphasizing above ground while neglecting underground," leading to an imbalance between above-ground and underground infrastructure construction. Underground infrastructure is small in quantity, low in level, poor in quality, and lagging in development, which has become a weak link in modern urban construction. There is an urgent need for the government and society to change the traditional construction mode and adopt a new sustainable urban development mode.

　　(3) Urban Operation Level Is Not High, with Prominent Problems

　　In China's cities, roads are repeatedly excavated, manhole covers are densely distributed, overhead lines are concentrated, underground pipe networks are intricate, resource and energy leakage is serious, and safety hazards are prominent, affecting people's normal production and life and even causing losses to people's lives and property. Therefore, building urban underground utility tunnels is an objective requirement for improving comprehensive urban carrying capacity and supporting new urbanization development, an inevitable choice for transforming urban development modes and filling urban shortcomings, and a practical need for improving urban operation levels and solving problems such as "road zippers" in a package.

　　II. The Important Role of Building Underground Utility Tunnels

　　(1) Intensive Use of Underground Space

　　Building urban underground utility tunnels incorporates all scattered underground pipelines and ancillary facilities for water supply, drainage, gas, heating, electric power, communications, radio and television, as well as above-ground overhead cables, into the tunnels. This can intensively use urban underground space, effectively reduce space waste, and give greater play to urban space.

　　(2) Saving Pipeline Construction Funds

　　According to estimates, in the short term, the one-time investment in urban underground utility tunnel construction is about 50 million to 120 million yuan per kilometer, higher than the cost of about 20 million yuan per kilometer for decentralized pipeline construction. However, the full life cycle of an underground utility tunnel can reach 100 years. In the long term, building underground utility tunnels, first, avoids multiple pipeline constructions and improves investment efficiency. Second, it facilitates inspection and maintenance of pipelines, reducing operational losses and operation and maintenance costs. Third, it reduces indirect losses such as traffic congestion and pipeline safety accidents caused by pipeline construction. Therefore, comprehensively, building urban underground utility tunnels saves money compared with direct burial of pipelines.

　　(3) Ensuring Urban Operation Safety

　　In recent years, problems such as leakage explosions, road collapses, and manhole injuries caused by underground pipelines have occurred frequently, posing serious hidden dangers to urban operation safety. To improve the safety level of underground pipeline construction and operation and ensure urban operation safety, pipelines should be incorporated into urban underground utility tunnels to facilitate strengthened pipeline operation, maintenance, and safety management, and to promptly discover and eliminate hidden dangers.

　　(4) Stimulating Stable Economic Growth

　　At present, China's economic situation is severe and complex, and downward pressure continues to increase. It is necessary to leverage the key role of investment in stabilizing growth. Building urban underground utility tunnels can effectively increase government and social investment and stabilize economic growth. Moreover, building urban underground utility tunnels meets the requirements for optimizing investment structure and direction. If a certain proportion of roads are equipped with utility tunnels, synchronously building urban underground utility tunnels when building new roads in new urban areas and coordinating the construction of urban underground utility tunnels during old city renewal, based on an investment estimate of 50 million to 120 million yuan per kilometer, direct investment of hundreds of billions or even trillions of yuan can be generated annually. In addition, it can stimulate indirect investment in steel, cement, machinery and equipment, as well as a large amount of labor input, with an obvious role in stimulating economic growth.

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　　III. How to Build Urban Underground Utility Tunnels

　　To ensure the steady and orderly progress of urban underground utility tunnel construction, in 2015, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Ministry of Finance launched pilot cities for central financial support for urban underground utility tunnel construction, solving existing problems through pilot demonstrations and summarizing and promoting experience. In July 2015, the 100th Executive Meeting of the State Council specially studied and deployed the promotion of urban underground utility tunnel construction. The General Office of the State Council issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Construction of Urban Underground Utility Tunnels" (Guobanfa [2015] No. 61), proposing work objectives and tasks. The "Several Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Further Strengthening Urban Planning, Construction, and Management" once again clarified the tasks and requirements for building urban underground utility tunnels. To implement the central requirements, in promoting the construction of urban underground utility tunnels, the following work should be done well:

　　(1) Implement Planning First

　　Building urban underground utility tunnels is a "century project" that affects both the present and the long term, and must be built in an orderly manner strictly according to planning. First, adhere to planning first. Following the principle of "planning before construction," on the basis of underground pipeline surveys, coordinate the actual development needs of various pipelines, and organize the compilation of underground utility tunnel construction plans. The planning period should in principle be consistent with the city's overall plan. Second, meet development needs. Combine with special construction plans for underground space development and utilization, various underground pipelines, and road traffic, reasonably determine the layout, pipeline types, cross-section forms, plane positions, and vertical control of urban underground utility tunnels, clarify construction scale and timing, comprehensively consider long-term urban development, and reserve and control relevant underground space. Third, do a good job in project reserves. Establish a construction project reserve system, clarify the five-year rolling project plan and annual construction plan, and actively, steadily, and orderly promote the construction of urban underground utility tunnels.

　　(2) Adhere to High-Standard Construction

　　Standards and specifications are the norms in the technical field. Urban underground utility tunnels must be designed, constructed, and accepted strictly in accordance with standards and specifications. The following technical factors should be considered: First, engineering structure. The structural design of underground utility tunnels should consider the needs of various pipeline connections and branch lines, and meet the requirements of earthquake resistance, civil air defense, and comprehensive disaster prevention. Second, cross-section dimensions. The cross-section of urban underground utility tunnels should meet the needs of all pipelines in the area to enter the tunnel, comply with the space requirements for pipeline laying, capacity expansion, operation, maintenance, and repair, and be equipped with vehicle and pedestrian inspection passages, reasonably set entrances and exits, and facilitate repair and replacement of pipes. Third, supporting facilities. Urban underground utility tunnels should be equipped with ancillary facilities such as fire protection, power supply, lighting, ventilation, water supply and drainage, video, signage, safety and alarm, and intelligent management, to improve intelligent monitoring and management levels and ensure safe operation of the tunnel. It is necessary to meet the needs of independent operation, maintenance, and safety management of various pipelines and avoid mutual interference. In addition, the construction of urban underground utility tunnels should also strictly review construction drawing designs, strengthen source control, and design reviews should not be approved for urban underground utility tunnel projects that do not comply with standards and specifications.

　　(3) Delineate Construction Areas

　　Urban underground space development takes various forms. It is necessary to coordinate underground space arrangements and reasonably delineate underground utility tunnel construction areas. First, new roads in new urban areas, various parks, and contiguous development areas should synchronously build underground utility tunnels according to functional needs. Second, old urban areas should combine old city renewal, road reconstruction, river regulation, and underground space development to adapt to local conditions and coordinate the construction of underground utility tunnels. Third, in urban roads with large traffic volume and dense underground pipelines, rail transit, underground complexes, and other sections, high-intensity development areas, important public spaces, major road intersections, intersections of roads with railways or rivers, and road sections where road width makes it difficult to separately lay multiple pipelines, priority should be given to building underground utility tunnels.

　　(4) Clarify Pipeline Entry Requirements

　　Pipeline entry into tunnels is the foundation and key link for the sustainable operation of underground utility tunnels. To ensure pipeline entry, various pipelines within the urban planning area should in principle be laid in underground space. In areas where underground utility tunnels have been built, all pipelines in the area must enter the tunnels. For new pipelines built outside urban underground utility tunnels, planning departments shall not grant permits, construction departments shall not grant construction permits, and municipal road departments shall not grant road excavation permits. In addition, existing pipelines should also be gradually and orderly relocated to urban underground utility tunnels according to actual conditions.

　　(5) Implement Charging Policies

　　To promote the construction and development of urban underground utility tunnels, it is necessary to fully leverage the decisive role of the market in resource allocation and better play the role of the government, forming a reasonable charging mechanism. According to the requirements of the "Guiding Opinions on Implementing a Paid Use System for Urban Underground Utility Tunnels" (Fagai Jiage [2015] No. 2754) issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the following work should be done: First, establish a market-based price formation mechanism. Charging standards should in principle be determined through negotiation between the tunnel construction and operation unit and the pipeline units entering the tunnel according to market principles, and a regular adjustment mechanism should be established simultaneously. For those that do not yet have the conditions for negotiation between supply and demand parties, the paid use fee standard may be subject to government pricing or government-guided pricing. Second, fully consider cost components. The paid use fee for underground utility tunnels includes tunnel entry fees and daily maintenance fees. Cost components should be fully considered to set reasonable prices, ensuring that the price level is conducive to attracting social capital participation and mobilizing the enthusiasm of pipeline units to enter the tunnel. Third, improve safeguard measures. For urban underground utility tunnel operations that cannot recover costs through charging, local governments should provide necessary financial subsidies as appropriate. In addition, for public welfare pipelines entering tunnels, measures such as government purchase of services and appropriate fee concessions can be taken to actively support them.

　　(6) Introduce Social Capital

　　To build urban underground utility tunnels, it is necessary to fully leverage the guiding role of government funds and maximize the participation of social capital. First, increase government investment. The central government will continue to coordinate funds through existing channels to provide support. Provincial governments should strengthen the coordination of construction funds for urban underground utility tunnels. City governments should prioritize urban underground utility tunnel projects in annual budgets and construction plans and include them in the scope of local government procurement. City governments with conditions may provide loan interest subsidies for urban underground utility tunnel projects. Second, promote the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. Encourage enterprises to independently invest in, build, and operate underground utility tunnels, flexibly adopt various PPP models, and promote social capital participation in the construction and operation management of urban underground utility tunnels. Third, improve supporting policies. Provide land, property, and other operational resources for tunnel construction and operation projects in accordance with laws and regulations, coordinate the use of price compensation, financial subsidies, government purchase of services, and other channels to raise funds, guide social capital partners to form reasonable return expectations, and mobilize the enthusiasm of social capital investment.

　　(7) Improve Management Level

　　The government, tunnel operation units, and pipeline units should cooperate with each other, coordinate comprehensively, and jointly improve the management level of tunnels and pipelines. First, strengthen policy guidance. City governments should formulate specific management measures for urban underground utility tunnels and strengthen work guidance and supervision. Second, improve management systems. Urban underground utility tunnel operation units should sign agreements with pipeline units entering the tunnel, clarifying the types, time, costs, and rights and responsibilities of pipelines entering the tunnel, ensuring the normal operation of urban underground utility tunnels. Third, determine division of responsibilities. The management of the main body and ancillary facilities of urban underground utility tunnels shall be the responsibility of the tunnel construction and operation units, and the facility maintenance and daily management of pipelines entering the tunnel shall be the responsibility of each pipeline unit. Tunnel construction and operation units and pipeline units entering the tunnel should have clear divisions of labor, perform their duties, cooperate with each other, and do a good job in emergency response and emergency management.