Roads, bridges and airports underground

Underground architect and author Malcolm Wells wants to bury America - or at least it roads, bridges, parking lots and airports.

Noting that much of the country's infrastructure is now in ruins, he warns that if it's built back the same way, the country will be in the same mess 30 or 40 years later. The solution is to put the infrastructure underground, Wells writes in the September issue of The Futurist magazine (World Future Society, 450-7910 Woodmont Ave, Bethesda MD 20814 USA).

Wells argues the it's obvious we should not be building almost everything on the 'earth's tender skin'.

'By letting our structure hog all the sunlight wherever we go, we stamp out much of the natural riches of our land. Weather is not kind to building materials. They need to be protected by a blanket of earth. Otherwise, ice cracks the freeways, water rusts bridge structures, floods rage because water cannot soak into impervious ground.'

The bridge of the future, Wells suggests, should have a roof and a deep covering of earth. 'It would be nice if animals - as well as plants - could make use of the land-to-land connection that bridges offer human travellers,' Wells adds. While automobiles thunder across a span, a herd of deer might be peacefully crossing on the earthen canopy overhead.

Automobiles could also move underground along with railroads, leaving the surface for trees and grasses, eagles and wildflowers. Even airports could be located underground.