The Department of Survey, which had been founded in 1839, was merged with the Colonial Engineer's office in 1871, as part of a consolidation policy launched by Sir Harry Ord and controlled by Major F.A.

He reorganised the department in 1873, by assigned Captain W. Innes as First Assistant Engineer and Surveyor in the State of Penang and another in Melaka.

Malayan Union Director of Public Works Department of Federation of Malaya (Consists of 11 states in Malaya - 9 Malay States and 2 British settlements of Penang and Malacca): After the Formation of Malaysia The JKR's Building Sectors is responsible for building and maintaining government buildings in Malaysia such as public government offices, schools, hospitals, police and army facilities etc.

Expert Sectors also embarks in providing professional services such as structural integrity and building safety assessment.

It consists of:- The Management Sectors functions to develop strategic plan on project monitoring and reporting.

The core function of this sector is to support the Infrastructure, Building and Specialist Sector in achieving quality development and maintenance of infrastructure with geotechnical and structural investigation work as well as laboratory services for quality control testing, verification and validation.