Dr. Jayantha Ameratunga
Jay Ameratunga B Sc (Eng) Hons MEng PhD FIE Aust CPEng RPEQ
Senior Principal Engineer
Professional profile
Jay has been a practising civil engineer for over 35 years specialising in geotechnical engineering. Early part of his career was spent overseas before joining the Coffey Group in 1989. Since joining Coffey he has worked on numerous projects across Australia and in New Zealand.
He has been involved with the investigation, design and construction of most of the major highways including Pacific Motorway, Pacific Highway/SE Freeway, Logan Motorway, Port of Brisbane Motorway, Logan Duplication and the Northern Access Road Project in Brisbane as well as the Port Access Road, and the Caldwell Road Project in Townsville.. He led the Geotechnical Team for the A$1.88 billion Gateway Upgrade Project in Brisbane, the largest infrastructure project by Queensland transport at the time. He was a key member of the geotechnical team who was involved in the design of the Circle Line 3 metro project in Singapore which included five station boxes and cut & cover tunnel stretches and won an industry award for the underpinning of Bishan Depot. He also worked as the geotechnical consultant to several multi-million dollar tenders involving railway tunnels and stations, and DTSS tunnels in Singapore.
He has a wide experience in major projects and has been involved in major port, roads and highways, buildings and tunnels. He was the Geotechnical Team Leader for the FPE Seawall alliance project at the Port of Brisbane which comprised the design and construction of a 4.6km long seawall over soft clay up to 30m depth. The project won several industry awards. He was the Project Director and Technical Leader for the Ground Improvement Trials conducted at the Port of Brisbane which won the Innovation Award at the 2010 Engineering Excellence Awards conducted by the Institution of Engineers, Queensland. He has been assisting the Port of Brisbane as a reclamation and ground improvement specialist for the port expansion works over the last decade. In addition he has worked on numerous projects associated with the Port of Townsville and Port of Gladstone. Jay also was the Geotechnical/Reclamation specialist for the proposed reclamation at the Port of Lyttelton, where a consent application was sought to extend the Port activities by reclamation of the Bay.
Jay has also provided geotechnical direction and advice for major industrial plants, pipelines, and other infrastructure. The work involved is not only related to foundations but constructability which is extremely important on any project.
He is currently acting as the Principal Reviewer on the State Highway 16 project in New Zealand where a major highway on deep soft soils is to be widened and raised as well as a design reviewer for the proposed New Priok Port Project in Jakarta.
He is a Past Chair, Australian Geomechanics Society, Queensland Division and is a member of the Australian Standards Committee for geosynthetics. He was the chair of the Working Group on the Australian Standard 8700 on Prefabricated Vertical Drains which was issued in 2011. He is also a visiting lecturer in Geotechnical Engineering at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane.
