Ray Wedgwood

Raymond John Lloyd Wedgwood (27 May 1942 – 5 March 2020) was an Australian engineer who served as the Chief Bridge Engineer of the Department of Main Roads and the Roads & Traffic Authority in New South Wales. He designed and supervised the construction of many major bridges across New South Wales and led the design team for the cable stayed Anzac Bridge in Sydney. He also played a pivotal role in the development of a common code of bridge design practice used by all Australian state road authorities.

Early life Wedgwood was born in Dorrigo, New South Wales, and grew up in nearby Bellingen. He was educated at Coffs Harbour High School and, on completing his secondary education, was awarded a cadetship by the Department of Main Roads (DMR) to attend the University of Sydney to study civil engineering.

Career After graduating with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Hons) degree in 1963 Wedgwood commenced employment in the DMR's Bridge Section in Sydney where his first bridge design involvement was for a curved reinforced concrete box section bridge over the F3 Motorway at Mount White. This design adopted an innovative form of prestressing in which the continuous steel trapezoidal box girder sets would be set up with cambers of 60 inches at the center of the six-span set. After casting, the concrete deck would then be lowered by a controlled process to redistribute the stresses, matching the positive and negative bending moment capacities of the sections. Having completed the design Wedgwood was appointed as the Resident Engineer charged with supervision of the construction of the bridge.

In the late 1980s, Wedgwood was appointed as the New South Wales representative on the Austroads committee that was working to develop a new bridge design code to be used by all the Australian state road authorities. By the early 1990s Wedgwood had become the chair of that committee and in 1992 the new code was released. It was the first bridge design code in Australia to be based on limit state design. Continuing as the chair of the committee Wedgwood further developed the code to the point when it could be re-released as Australian Standard (AS 1500) for bridge design in 2004, at which time Austroads awarded Wedgwood the Austroads Medal for his work.

When the NSW Government charged the RTA with developing proposals to extend the Western Distributor freeway on the western approach to the Sydney CBD a solution needed to be found for a crossing of Blackwattle Bay at Glebe Island. The existing bridge at that location had been constructed in 1903, provided only four lanes of traffic and, as an opening swing span bridge, caused frequent stoppages in traffic. Regular use of the channel under the bridge by large cargo ships and the presence of underwater power supply cables prevented the new bridge from being a multi span structure.

Between 2008 and 2011, together with another former NSW Chief Bridge Engineer, Brian Pearson, he provided technical advice to the ACT Government about the heritage issues and structural refurbishment of the historic timber truss bridge over the Murrumbidgee River at Tharwa.

He also contributed to several book on heritage bridge issues, notably Bridging Sydney, a history of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (2006), and The Timber Truss Bridge Book (2019).

Wedgwood died at Beverly Hills, Sydney on 5 March 2020.

Awards 1982 – Warren Medal, Institution of Engineers Australia 2004 – Austroads Medal, Austroads