The great pour will take place from 8:30 am in University Walk, outside the University's Queens Building.

A total of 50 lorries will transport 180 cubic meters of concrete that will be poured into the enormous foundations of a Heavy Structures Laboratory. It will take up to 7 hours to fill (depending on Bristol traffic).

These laboratories will be one of the largest facilities in the world for simulating earthquakes, allowing scaled models of buildings to be shaken to their foundations.

It will also allow testing and evaluation of large engineering systems. This will place Bristol University at the centre of a massive research effort to improve the performance of structures such as bridges, power stations and aircraft, making them safer and more reliable for the benefit of all users.

BLADE is the University's biggest building project at the moment. Two entirely new laboratory buildings and an extensive refurbishment of laboratory space in the Queen's Building are now well underway.

The Bristol Laboratory of Advanced Dynamic Engineering (BLADE) is funded by a £15m grant from the government's Joint Infrastructure Fund, with a further £2m being invested by the University of Bristol