Lagos As A Three-Dimensional City: Rethinking Spatial Governance And Subterranean Development

I strongly recommend that Lagos begin to think of itself as a three-dimensional city. Urban functions should be deliberately allocated across three spatial planes: above ground, at ground level, and below ground. The objective is not the indiscriminate construction of tunnels or elevated structures. It is the development of a system of spatial governance that assigns each function to the level where it can operate most efficiently, safely and sustainably.

Cities that grow without a coherent spatial philosophy eventually confront a hard limit: the surface can no longer absorb the competing demands placed upon it. Lagos has reached that threshold. The daily struggle for road space, the friction between commerce and mobility, and the relentless competition for every available metre of ground all point to a deeper structural problem. The city is still being planned and governed largely as a two-dimensional surface, even as its population, economy and infrastructure needs have long outgrown that model.

International experience shows that this is not an abstract ideal. Cities facing similar pressures of density and land scarcity have gradually moved beyond purely surface-based planning. Helsinki’s underground master-planning framework, for instance, treats the subsurface as a legitimate and coordinated part of the urban system. The lesson for Lagos is not imitation. It is the recognition that urban planning need not stop at the surface.

The central question, therefore, is not whether Lagos can dig deeper or build higher. The real question is whether the city can develop the legal, institutional and technical capacity to govern its space vertically as well as horizontally.

Lagos is Already Running Out of Surface

Lagos is a city under extraordinary spatial pressure. Private cars, commercial buses, articulated trucks, freight logistics, motorcycles and pedestrians constantly compete for the same corridors. Markets spill into roads. Commercial activity occupies valuable road space. Port-related traffic intersects with commuter movements. Parking consumes high-value urban land. Utilities repeatedly require excavation of already congested roads.

The problem is not merely a shortage of roads. It is that too many competing urban functions are forced onto the same horizontal plane. We must therefore reframe the question. Instead of asking only how to create more road space, Lagos should ask how to create more urban space.

A modern metropolis can operate across multiple spatial levels. Selected infrastructure can be placed underground. Core public activities can remain at street level. Certain transport systems can operate above ground. Waterways can function as active transportation corridors. Utilities can be consolidated into coordinated underground networks rather than repeatedly occupying road reserves.

The objective is not to maximise construction in every direction. It is to allocate the right urban function to the right spatial level. That is the foundation of three-dimensional urban planning.

The Three Dimensions of the Lagos City

Three-dimensional urbanism should not be understood simply as building taller buildings. It is a system of spatial allocation.

The first dimension is the space above ground. This includes elevated rail systems, bridges, flyovers, pedestrian walkways, and other infrastructure that can operate above ground without occupying additional ground-level space.

The second dimension is the surface. This is the conventional urban plane occupied by roads, buildings, markets, pedestrians, public spaces, commercial activity and, in Lagos, an extensive network of waterways.

The third dimension is the subsurface. This includes underground rail, road tunnels, parking facilities, utility corridors, logistics centres, stormwater infrastructure, pedestrian connections, storage, and other infrastructure that can operate appropriately beneath the surface.

The purpose of this framework is not to build indiscriminately in all three dimensions. It is to determine where each urban function can be located most efficiently, safely and sustainably.

A road does not necessarily need to occupy the surface. A parking facility does not necessarily require prime commercial land. A utility network should not repeatedly disrupt surface activity every time maintenance is required. A pedestrian does not always need to share space with freight vehicles.

The three-dimensional city therefore represents a shift from horizontal land-use planning to vertical spatial governance.

A recent study of the subsurface spatial infrastructure of Lagos noted that, although the city possesses numerous shallow utility conduits, its deeper subsurface remains largely unused for major urban transport development.

This presents both a challenge and an opportunity. Lagos has developed an enormous above-ground metropolitan system, while comparatively little attention has been paid to the systematic planning and governance of the subsurface.

International precedent demonstrates that the subsurface can form a legitimate extension of municipal spatial planning. Helsinki, for example, has developed an underground master-planning framework that coordinates the use of subsurface space for utilities, parking, transport and other urban functions.

The lesson for Lagos is not that Helsinki should be copied. Lagos has a different geography, climate, geology, economy and institutional environment. The lesson is more fundamental: urban planning should not stop at the surface.

If Lagos can regulate its land surface, there is no reason why it cannot regulate the subsurface.

From Underground Transport to Subsurface Infrastructure

It is important to distinguish between underground transport and subsurface urbanism. The latter is much broader. Lagos should explore the possibility of using subsurface space for selected mass-transit corridors, road bypasses, parking, utility infrastructure, stormwater management, logistics, waste-management systems, storage and pedestrian connections.

The governing principle should remain simple: put the right infrastructure at the right spatial level. This could transform the way the city thinks about its most congested districts. Consider Lagos Island, particularly the Marina, CMS, Broad Street and Idumota corridors. These areas experience intense friction between vehicles, pedestrians, traders, parking, freight and commercial activity.

One can imagine a different spatial arrangement in which selected transport and logistics functions operate below the surface, supported by underground loading facilities, parking and multimodal interchanges connecting road, rail and water transport. The objective would not be the tunnel itself. The tunnel would be the mechanism for reclaiming the surface. The surface could then be redesigned around pedestrians, public spaces, commercial activity, landscaping and more efficient movement.

Reimagining Lagos Markets

The same principle applies to the city’s markets. Lagos possesses some of the most vibrant commercial markets in Africa. Yet many of these markets suffer from a structural conflict: pedestrians, traders, delivery vehicles and customers are forced to occupy the same physical space.

Heavy delivery vehicles do not necessarily need to enter the most congested surface areas. In appropriately designed locations, underground logistics facilities could receive goods, with freight lifts transferring them vertically into market buildings. Delivery schedules could be managed systematically, while the surface could be reserved primarily for pedestrian and commercial activity.

This would not solve every market problem. It would, however, demonstrate how the three-dimensional city can address several problems simultaneously: congestion, parking, pedestrian safety, logistics efficiency and land utilisation.

The Water Must Remain Part of the Solution

Subterranean development must not be used as an excuse to ignore Lagos’s most important natural spatial asset: water. Lagos is a coastal metropolis with an extensive network of lagoons, creeks and waterways. The Lagos State Waterways Authority and Lagos Ferry Services operate as part of the state’s efforts to develop water transportation as an alternative to road travel.

Road, rail and water transport should not be treated as competing systems. They should form a single multimodal metropolitan network. A passenger should be able to move from a ferry terminal to rail and then to road transport without unnecessary friction. Similarly, freight should be transferred efficiently between ports, waterways, logistics facilities and road networks.

Every passenger or container that can be moved efficiently by water or rail is potentially one less unit of pressure on the road network. The three-dimensional city is therefore not merely an underground city. It is an integrated spatial and mobility system.

Lagos Cannot Tunnel Its Way Out of Geography.

There is, however, a danger in becoming overly enthusiastic about subterranean development. Lagos presents significant engineering and environmental challenges. It is a low-lying coastal and estuarine environment characterised by complex marine sediments, soft, compressible soils, saturated sands, and high groundwater conditions. Coastal aquifers are also vulnerable to saline intrusion, while land subsidence and flooding present significant environmental concerns.

These realities mean that tunnelling cannot be approached as a conventional road-construction exercise. Every major subterranean project should be preceded by rigorous geotechnical and hydrogeological investigation. The state would need reliable subsurface mapping, continuous structural monitoring, advanced tunnelling technology, waterproofing systems, groundwater management and integrated flood detention and drainage infrastructure. Climate resilience must be built into the design from the beginning.

The question therefore is not whether the Lagos three-dimensional plan is desirable. The real issue is whether it is technically feasible, economically justified and environmentally responsible.

Security Must Be Designed Into the Underground City

Security is equally important. Underground spaces that are poorly lit, inadequately monitored or structurally neglected can quickly become security vulnerabilities.

A Lagos underground strategy would therefore need to incorporate security from the earliest stages of design. This should include appropriate lighting, CCTV integration, emergency communication systems, access control, emergency exits, backup power, ventilation, fire protection, and rapid emergency response protocols.

Security cannot be an afterthought. The same principle applies to maintenance. Infrastructure that cannot be properly maintained will eventually become a liability, regardless of how impressive it appears at the time of construction.

The Legal Question: Who Owns the Space Beneath Lagos?

The engineering challenge is only one part of the problem. The more fundamental and legal question is this: how should the law govern the space beneath the city?

The Land Use Act provides the basic framework for land administration in Nigeria. It vests all land in the territory of each State in the Governor, to be held in trust and administered for the use and common benefit of Lagosians. Yet a genuinely three-dimensional city raises questions that conventional surface-based land administration does not adequately answer.

If a person has an interest in the land surface, will that interest extend beneath also? There is, of course, the land law doctrine that the owner of land on the surface is also entitled to what is beneath. A review of land tenure will therefore need careful consideration.

Can subsurface rights be separately allocated from surface rights? Can the government reserve underground corridors for public infrastructure? Who bears responsibility where underground construction affects a structure above? How should competing rights between utilities, transport infrastructure, property owners and public authorities be resolved?

These questions point towards the need for a clearer legal framework for subsurface property rights and three-dimensional land-use governance. The Land Use Act may require careful amendment or supplementary legislation to accommodate vertical spatial rights and to clarify the Governor’s powers over the subsurface for public infrastructure purposes.

In addition, Lagos State’s town planning and physical development laws will need to be reviewed accordingly. Existing planning instruments were largely designed for surface land use. They do not yet provide a coherent framework for coordinating above-ground, surface and subterranean development, or for managing the interface between private development rights and public infrastructure corridors beneath the city.

Lagos should therefore examine whether its existing land administration and planning frameworks are sufficient for a metropolitan environment in which valuable infrastructure will increasingly occupy different vertical levels. Law must develop alongside infrastructure.

The Economics of Going Underground

The principal objection to subterranean development will, understandably, be cost. Tunnelling is expensive. Underground construction can be technically complex and requires substantial capital investment. But the economic analysis should not stop at the construction cost.

The relevant question is the value of the surface space that underground infrastructure can release. In high-value locations, moving parking, logistics, utilities or selected transport functions underground may release substantial surface land for commercial development, public spaces, pedestrian infrastructure and other productive uses.

This creates the possibility of Land Value Capture. The state could capture part of the increase in land and development value generated by improved accessibility and the reclamation of surface space. Long-term commercial leases, development rights, concessions and other instruments could potentially provide revenue streams to support infrastructure investment.

This is where Public-Private Partnerships become relevant. The objective should not be to transfer every project to private investors. Rather, the state should identify projects in which private capital, public land, development rights, and long-term concession arrangements can be combined to produce economically viable infrastructure.

The business case for underground infrastructure should therefore consider not only the cost of digging a tunnel but also the economic value created by what becomes possible above it.

Learning from Lagos’s Own Experience

Lagos must also learn from its own infrastructure history. Previous subterranean parking initiatives, including projects around Falomo, demonstrate that engineering alone does not guarantee successful urban infrastructure. Institutional continuity, maintenance, financing, management and public use are equally important.

A project may be technically sound but still fail if there is no durable institutional structure to operate it. Infrastructure built without a sustainable management and financing model risks becoming an expensive liability.

The lesson is clear: Lagos should build infrastructure only where it can also build the institutions necessary to govern it.

A Lagos Three-Dimensional Urban Commission

A three-dimensional Lagos cannot be planned by one agency working in isolation. Transport, planning, environment, water, land administration, infrastructure, security and economic development are interconnected. Lagos should therefore establish a multidisciplinary Three-Dimensional Urban Development Commission or an equivalent institutional mechanism responsible for coordinating the state’s vertical spatial strategy.

Such a body should bring together urban planners, engineers, geologists, architects, transport economists, lawyers, environmental scientists, financial experts, security professionals and infrastructure operators.

Its first task should not be construction. Its first task should be knowledge. The state must know what lies beneath its most important corridors before it begins to build beneath them.

From Master Plan to Pilot Projects

The proposal for a Lagos Underground Master Plan should therefore begin with a disciplined pilot programme.

The state should identify perhaps five priority corridors and subject each to detailed technical, economic, environmental and legal assessments.

The assessment should examine traffic and transport demand, geotechnical and hydrogeological conditions, land values, existing utility infrastructure, economic activity, flood vulnerability, environmental impact, security requirements, social consequences, potential development value, financing options, and long-term maintenance requirements. Not every corridor will qualify. That is precisely the point.

Lagos should tunnel where tunnelling makes sense, not because underground construction appears technologically impressive. The most viable pilot could involve a combination of functions: transport, parking, logistics and utilities, rather than a single-purpose tunnel. The resulting project could then provide the state with practical knowledge about engineering, financing, property rights, public acceptance, maintenance and institutional coordination.

Successful pilots can be expanded. Unviable proposals can be abandoned before substantial public resources are committed.

Towards a Lagos Underground Master Plan

Years ago, I discussed the potential of subterranean engineering in Lagos with a Nigerian tunnel expert then based in Hong Kong, and facilitated an introduction to the administration of Governor Babatunde Fashola. Those preliminary conversations did not materialise into projects at the time.

The pressures on Lagos, however, have intensified. What may once have appeared ambitious or premature now deserves serious policy consideration. The Lagos of 2050 cannot be planned simply by adding more asphalt to today’s surface network. The physical land area of Lagos is finite, while population, economic activity, mobility and infrastructure demands continue to grow.

The state should therefore establish a Lagos Three-Dimensional Urban and Underground Master Plan 2050 built around five immediate objectives:

First, map the geological, geotechnical and hydrogeological characteristics of priority urban corridors.

Second, establish the legal framework for three-dimensional land use, including clearer rules governing subsurface property rights and public infrastructure corridors.

Third, identify infrastructure functions that can be appropriately moved underground or above ground to release valuable surface space.

Fourth, develop bankable Public-Private Partnership and Land Value Capture mechanisms to finance viable projects.

Fifth, implement carefully selected pilot projects before committing to a wider metropolitan underground network.

This is not an argument for turning Lagos into a city of tunnels. It is an argument for turning Lagos into a city that uses its available space intelligently.

Lagos Must Begin to Think Vertically

The central challenge facing Lagos is no longer simply how to build more roads. It is how to organise a finite amount of urban space for an expanding population and economy.

The answer lies partly above the ground, partly on the surface and, where technically and economically justified, partly beneath it.

Three-dimensional urbanism offers Lagos a different way of thinking about congestion, land scarcity, transportation, logistics, utilities, public space and urban development. It requires us to move beyond the assumption that every urban function must compete for the same horizontal space.

However, this vision will succeed only if engineering is matched by law, financing by governance, and infrastructure by long-term institutional capacity.

Lagos does not need to build underground everywhere. It needs to know where to build, why to build, how to finance it, how to regulate it, and how to govern it for generations.

The state should therefore begin with a serious feasibility programme, a coherent legal framework, carefully selected pilot projects and, ultimately, a Lagos Underground Master Plan 2050.

Lagos has always been an ambitious and forward-looking city. It is time for its urban strategy to look not only ahead but also above, across, and below the surface.

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