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Official opening of the Soil-Foundation-Structure Interaction laboratory

Watch the official opening of our new SoFSI facility, a globally unique facility designed to enable large-scale testing to understand the way high-value infrastructure interacts with soil.

SoFSI will support a wide variety of academic and commercial research with industry, underpinning the renewal, sustainment and improvement of infrastructure and cities in the UK and around the world. It is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

The SoFSI facility is a £12 million national laboratory located at the University of Bristol’s Langford campus in North Somerset, just south of the City and County of Bristol. This allows space and ease of access.
2:56 Professor Anastasios Sextos outlines the research capability, its evolution from the UKCRIC framework and investment in critical infrastructure research and its importance in the face of infrastructure exposure to multiple hazards manmade and natural, including climate change. SoFSI can provide reliable large scale validation for infrastructure in the transport and energy sector, making it safer, faster, smarter, cheaper and greener.
13:56 David Williams, Technical Manager, takes us on a video tour of the facility.
16:51 Professor Hugh Brady, Vice Chancellor of the University of Bristol talks about cultivating disciplinary strength and interdisciplinary excellence and SoFSI’s place in its portfolio.
21:16 John Penrose, MP for Weston super Mare formally opens the facility.
23:38 Video presentation of what the facility offers – including shaking table, soil pit and hexapod
https://sofsi.bristol.ac.uk/