Why Dubai Is Moving Underground and Where DeTech Fits into This Transformation

Dubai is moving underground because the city is becoming larger, denser and harder to serve from the surface.

The Main Idea

Dubai's next generation of infrastructure is increasingly moving underground. This is not simply a preference for tunnels. It is an engineering response to a city that is growing, becoming denser and depending more on uninterrupted transport, drainage, sewerage and utility systems.

Build more infrastructure without creating more surface disruption.

Dubai must install new systems below highways, existing utilities, residential areas, industrial zones, airports and operating infrastructure. In many locations, long open-cut excavation is difficult, disruptive or impractical. Underground construction offers another solution: pass below the conflict instead of opening the full surface alignment.

1. Why Dubai Is Moving Underground

• Surface space is limited. Major roads, utilities and developments already occupy many of Dubai's key corridors.
• Surface disruption has major consequences. Road closures, utility diversions and long open trenches can affect traffic, businesses, residents and logistics.
• Infrastructure demand is increasing. Dubai needs larger stormwater, sewerage and utility systems to support future growth and improve resilience.
• Long-term systems need better connectivity. Deep tunnels and large trunk lines can connect several catchments and service areas into wider regional networks.

Important: tunnelling is not always the correct method. The construction method should depend on depth, diameter, geology, groundwater, traffic, utilities, environmental limits and project risk.

2. Stormwater Is Becoming a Major Underground Challenge

Dubai's Tasreef programme demonstrates the scale of this transformation. It aims to increase the city's stormwater drainage capacity by approximately 700%, with long-term planning based on around 100 years of future needs. (Government of Dubai Media Office, 2024)

The announced strategy includes:

• Large drainage networks
• Deep tunnels
• Pumping infrastructure
• Strategic stormwater storage
• Connections between different parts of Dubai

In February 2026, Dubai Municipality announced five additional contracts under Tasreef Phase Two. The officially described scopes included a main tunnel up to 4 metres in diameter, more than 27 km of integrated drainage infrastructure and a system combining a tunnel, pumping station and strategic stormwater storage. (Government of Dubai Media Office, 2026)

These are no longer small utility works. They are major, long-term underground infrastructure systems.

3. Sewerage Is Moving in the Same Direction

Dubai is also developing the Dubai Strategic Sewerage Tunnels programme to modernise and expand its long-term sewerage infrastructure. (Dubai Municipality / Government of Dubai Media Office, 2025)

The engineering direction is similar: use major gravity-based infrastructure, deep tunnels and large connecting systems to move wastewater efficiently over long distances and reduce dependence on numerous local pumping facilities.

Detailed package and contractor information should be treated carefully until it is formally confirmed by the relevant authority.

4. Why Underground Systems Make Sense in Dubai

• Less surface disruption: tunnels can pass below roads, developments and utilities without opening the full alignment.
• Long-distance hydraulic connection: large gravity systems can connect several catchments or service areas into one wider network.
• Future capacity: major trunk infrastructure can be planned for long-term city growth, not only today's demand.
• Protection of surface assets: trenchless methods can reduce direct disturbance when properly designed and controlled.
• Better use of congested corridors: deep alignments can create infrastructure space where the surface is already heavily occupied.

5. Going Underground Changes the Type of Risk

Moving infrastructure underground does not remove risk. It changes the risk. As depth and diameter increase, construction becomes more sensitive to geotechnical conditions, groundwater, settlement, machine performance and operational control.

• Geotechnical investigation
• Groundwater pressure and dewatering
• Deep shaft construction
• Face stability and settlement control
• Alignment and guidance
• Slurry performance
• Jacking-force management
• Lubrication strategy
• Intermediate Jacking Stations
• Machine selection
• Emergency and recovery planning

A 4-metre-class underground pipeline is not simply a larger version of a 600 mm crossing. Shafts become larger, jacking forces increase, slurry volumes rise, logistics become more difficult and ground behaviour becomes more critical. The technical consequences of mistakes also become significantly greater.

6. Where DeTech Fits

DeTech is relevant because its core experience closely matches the type of work Dubai increasingly needs:

• Deep shafts
• Large-diameter microtunnelling
• Pipe jacking
• Sewerage and stormwater systems
• Long-distance drives
• High-groundwater conditions
• Congested urban infrastructure corridors

Dubai Municipality publicly identified DeTech Contracting among the major infrastructure companies involved in Tasreef Phase Two. Public information should be presented only within the limits of the officially confirmed scope. Specific package responsibilities should not be assumed without a separate confirmed source. (Government of Dubai Media Office, 2026)

DeTech's value is not simply that it works underground. Its value is its ability to manage the combined risks of large diameter, depth, groundwater, long drives and urban constraints.

7. The Competitive Advantage Is Not Only the TBM

Large-diameter microtunnelling cannot be reduced to one sentence: "We have a machine." A successful underground contractor needs a complete operating system.

• Machine capability: the MTBM must match the ground, diameter, pressure and expected drive length.
• Shaft capability: launch and reception shafts must be designed and built safely, especially under high groundwater.
• Guidance: long drives require reliable survey control, laser or gyro navigation and disciplined steering.
• Jacking-force control: calculated and measured forces must be compared continuously.
• Lubrication: a designed bentonite strategy reduces skin friction and protects the pipe string.
• IJS strategy: Intermediate Jacking Stations can distribute thrust on long or high-friction drives.
• Slurry management: pumps, lines, separation plant and spoil properties must operate as one system.
• Recovery capability: the contractor must know how to respond when ground, machine, alignment or pipe behaviour changes.

8. Experience Is the Real Asset

TBMs can be purchased, pipes can be manufactured and shafts can be constructed. What is harder to acquire quickly is accumulated underground construction experience.

• Predicting how the ground is likely to behave
• Recognising abnormal jacking force before it becomes a major problem
• Controlling slurry and groundwater
• Maintaining alignment over a long drive
• Identifying when field conditions no longer match design assumptions
• Making correct recovery decisions when conditions change
• Interpreting field data and coordinating design with construction

As Dubai moves toward deeper, larger and more technically demanding infrastructure, this field knowledge becomes increasingly valuable.

9. From Project Experience to Strategic Relevance

There is a difference between completing microtunnelling projects in Dubai and becoming relevant to Dubai's long-term underground infrastructure strategy.

DeTech's strategic opportunity is to develop from a conventional infrastructure contractor into a specialist large-diameter underground infrastructure contractor. This requires continuous capability in tunnelling engineering, geotechnical risk management, deep shafts, slurry technology, guidance systems, large-diameter pipe systems, complex logistics, equipment management, emergency planning and experienced technical personnel.

Long-term success should not be measured only by the number of completed projects. The real measure is the ability to deliver large and technically difficult underground works safely, predictably and repeatedly.

10. Scale Brings More Responsibility

Larger underground projects create greater opportunities, but they also bring much higher technical responsibility. As diameter and depth increase, there is less tolerance for uncontrolled construction.

• Engineering before excavation
• Risk identification before mobilisation
• Monitoring before problems appear
• Data-based decisions during tunnelling
• Strong coordination between design and construction
• Reliable equipment and system control
• Experienced site leadership
• Clear and rapid technical communication
• Pre-planned emergency response

The strongest contractor is not the one that tunnels fastest at any cost. It is the one that makes difficult underground construction predictable, controlled and repeatable.

Conclusion

Dubai is moving underground because its infrastructure challenges have changed. The city is larger, surface corridors are more congested, disruption has greater consequences, stormwater capacity must increase and sewerage systems must serve future populations.

The engineering response includes deep tunnels, large-diameter pipelines, gravity networks, pumping systems, storage facilities and advanced trenchless construction.

For DeTech, the opportunity is not simply to participate in more projects. The larger opportunity is to become recognised as one of the specialist contractors capable of solving the difficult underground problems that Dubai's next generation of infrastructure will create.

Dubai is moving underground. Companies that can make complex underground construction controlled, buildable and reliable will become increasingly important to the city's future.

References

• Government of Dubai Media Office (2024): Official announcement concerning the approval and long-term objectives of the Tasreef programme.
• Government of Dubai Media Office (2026): Official announcement concerning Tasreef Phase Two contracts and publicly described infrastructure scopes.
• Dubai Municipality / Government of Dubai Media Office (2025): Public information on Dubai's strategic sewerage infrastructure programme and long-term development.

Oğuzhan Ataşalar
Microtunnelling & NDRC Project Manager · Dubai