Full description
By 30 June 1954 the Department of Main Roads had developed a Head Office consisting of senior engineering staff, investigations, secretarial, accounting, legal, and property management staff.(1) It is unclear when this structure commenced. It is possible that the branch commenced when the Department was established on 19 November 1932. The senior engineer had the designation Chief Engineer. Existing records do not indicate whether at this period he and his staff formed the Chief Engineer’s Branch, but it is likely that this was so. The senior engineering staff in the Head Office included the following - Assistant Chief Engineer, Executive Engineer, Bridge Engineer, Maintenance Engineer, Engineer for Country Council’s Works, Construction Engineer, Administrative Engineer, Plant Engineer and Materials and Research Engineer. (2) By 1959 the Head Office had certainly divided into three separate Branches under the Chief Engineer, Secretary, and the Chief Accountant respectively. The Chief Engineer’s staff at this time consisted of an Assistant Chief Engineer, Deputy Engineer and Executive Engineer and the following specialist engineers - Bridges; Highways; Plant; Design and Urban Planning; Advance Planning; Traffic Service; Road Widenings; Specifications and Technical Instructions; and Materials and Research (3) It would appear that the strategic management and design occurred in the Chief Engineer’s Branch and that the construction and maintenance occurred in the divisional Offices of which there were then 13. (4) A NSW State Departmental Phone Book dated April 1967 indicates that the branch consisted of 20 sections which corresponded to the senior staff listed above. It also included a costs section, Garage (Head Office) Helio room, library, Plan Room and a Warringah Expressway section. (5) The annual reports of the Department of Main Roads first refer to the Engineer-in-Chief as a ‘Branch Head’ in 1973 (6) In 1974 the branch is known as the Technical Branch, (7) but by mid 1976 it was again known as the Engineer-in-Chief’s Branch (8) By the end of the financial year 1982-1983 the branch was known as the Engineering branch and was divided into the following sections - planning, roads, bridges, Traffic and Design and Services. Services included Supply, Plant and Equipment, Research and Development, Weight of Loads Enforcement, Printing and [Technical] Library. (9) By 1984 the planning function of the Branch escalated and Engineering Branch divided into two - Planning and Design and Operations.(10) Endnotes:(1) Annual reports from the commencement of the agency until 1953 give no organisational charts
(2) Department of Main Roads Annual Report for the year ended 30 June 1954 p. 4
(3) Department of Main Roads Annual Report for the Year Ended 30 June 1959 p. 5
(4) Ibid.
(5) NSW State Departmental Phone Book dated April 1967.Sydney, Government Information and Sales Centre, 1967? p. 112
(6) Department of Main Roads Annual Report for the Year Ended 30 June 1973 p. 1
(7) Department of Main Roads Annual Report for the Year Ended 30 June 1974 p. 40
(8) Department of Main Roads Annual Report for the Year Ended 30 June 1976 p. 40
(9) Department of Main Roads Annual Report for the year ended 30 June 1983 p. 12- 13
(10) Department of Main Roads Annual Report for the year ended 30 June 1984 p. 4- 5
User Contributed Tags
Login to tag this record with meaningful keywords to make it easier to discover
Identifiers
