He was also listed as the surveyor for the Colonial Insurance Company, and there are a number of tender advertisements, for reinstatement for damaged buildings.

In 1855, he presented a well received paper on the merits of iron truss bridges to the Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science (later the Royal Society of Victoria).

Other works he designed included 27 kilometres (17 mi) of the railway line from Newcastle to Maitland, prior to 1858, the design and construction of the Melbourne and Essendon Railway in 1859, and works for the Yarra Yarra Mining Company,[2] and Sandridge Lagoon, Port Melbourne.

Bell was responsible for a number of fairly similar wrought iron lattice truss road and rail bridges, several of which were fabricated from components supplied by Messrs. Lloyds, Fosters, and Company's Wednesbury, Old Park Ironworks, Staffordshire.

[3] His expertise was sought for a number of Melbourne civic works projects as he gave evidence to the Victorian Royal Commissions on the River and Harbour Trust in 1858 and 1860, and to the Select Committees on the Railway Department in 1860 and on the Central Railway Terminus in 1861 and in the same year was a member of the Royal Society of Victoria's Sanitary Committee.