In this research firstly tunnelling hazards in urban areas are introduced, and then the importance of monitoring during conventional urban tunnelling is presented. Finally the characteristics, limitations, problems, hazards and remedial measures for Niayesh road tunnel project were introduced. The Niayesh tunnel is under construction in urban area in Tehran, Iran. It was shown that the tunnelling in urban area has some major and particular characteristics and constraints compared with rural area which must be considered in the design and during construction of these types of infrastructures. The importance of geotechnical/structural/geodetic instrumentation as a practical engineering tool for systematic monitoring of tunnels and buildings in urbanized areas were shown and layout of Niayesh tunnel monitoring plan considering all requirements were planned and implemented. Based on monitoring results probable alerts, possible counter-measures and several design optimizations were given.