He took offices throughout the country, focusing particularly on questions of water management and hydraulic engineering, until he was seconded to the Ministry of Public Works, Trade, and Industry in 1894.

[2] Wortman completed his entrance examination for the Rijkswaterstaat in 1881, being appointed an "aspiring engineer" in the General Service on 15 November of that year.

[5] Wortman's portfolio in Drenthe also included the rivers and national roads in the area,[5] as well as the Drentsche Hoofdvaart [nl] and the region's steam-powered pumping stations.

[6] Wortman was seconded in July 1894 to the Ministry of Public Works, Trade, and Industry, where he was tasked with preparing for several infrastructure projects.

[5] He also served on a state commission for the management of water pollution, travelling to France, Germany, and the United Kingdom to survey existing measures.

The commission's report was published in 1901, and through his involvement Wortman ultimately spent two decades as an extraordinary member of the national health council.

[6] His work sometimes took him into the field; for instance, in 1902 he supervised the completion of a railway bridge over the Oude Maas near Spijkenisse following the death of its original engineer, M.

Sited in Haarlem and made chief engineer, second class, he became responsible for the various ports, islands, and sea defences in the area.

Several governments had sought to pass legislation that would allow the damming of the Zuiderzee, and to ensure the feasibility of the task, extensive preparatory work was required.

[7] Two years later, Wortman was appointed by Minister of Water Management Cornelis Lely as the chairman of a committee tasked with developing a new budget for the project.

He was responsible for the northwestern Netherlands, while fellow inspector general Johan Christoffel Ramaer [nl] had a different area of authority.

Minister Lely appointed Wortman to a commission, headed by Hendrik Lorentz, to examine the potential consequences of the project on sea levels.

[6] He was a strong advocate for using the new polders for agriculture, concurring with Hermanus Johannes Lovink that the country required agrarian land to ensure its self-sufficiency.