The dynamic response and seismic performance of long-extended utility tunnel are affected by many different seismic intensity measures (IMs), which characterizes different features of ground motions. It is of great importance to investigate the relationships between the ground motion IMs and the structural engineering demand parameters (EDPs) in the seismic performance evaluation of the long-extended utility tunnel. To this end, this study performed incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) of long-extended utility tunnel under the excitation of ground motions at different intensity levels with explicit consideration of the wave passage effects. In this numerical study, the utility tunnel was modeled as a nonlinear fiber-section beam on elastic foundation. Soil-structure interaction and joint connections were modeled as nonlinear springs with different mechanical properties. Based on the linear regression of nonlinear dynamic analysis results, a series of 20 IMs were selected and evaluated using the tunnel joint opening as the EDP according to the criteria efficiency, practicality and proficiency. The results indicated that the velocity-related IMs exhibited optimality with the seismic response of the utility tunnel compared with other types of IMs. The peak ground velocity (PGV) was identified as the optimal IM for the structural assessment of the long-extended utility tunnel, which can serve as a reference for the seismic fragility analysis of utility tunnel.