In this paper, the results of the numerical analysis for the minimum depth of soil cover have been compared with those of currently suggested codes. Based on this comparison, the minimum depth of soil cover for the structures with long spans was suggested. Results showed that the actual depth of the soil cover required against soil failure over a circular and low-profile arch structure does not vary significantly with the size of the span and for the circular structure, the minimum depth of the soil cover was about 1.5m, and for the low-profile arch structures, below about 1.6m. And the previously established code in which the minimum depth of soil cover is defined to linearly increase with the increase in the span (CHBDC, 2001) was very conservative. For the structure with the relieving slab, the maximum live load thrust was reduced by about 36 percent and the maximum moment about 81 percent. The numerical analysis gave more conservative estimation of the live-load thrusts than the other design methods.