An engineering expert said the design would be difficult to build, because of overhead wires and the need for a tram to always be ‘‘earthed’’ for power reasons. Port Phillip mayor Amanda Stevens said a tram bridge was needed over the Yarra River to link the new suburb of Fishermans Bend to Docklands. ‘‘In order for it to be successful, we need this sort of city-shaping infrastructure,’’ she said. ‘‘It's a green bridge, it brings a 10-minute tram ride from Fishermans Bend into the Hoddle Grid,’’ she said. ‘‘The alternative is that you don't have ... the right development and car-based communities that have no connection with the Hoddle Grid.’’

She said there were various designs for the proposal that could be worked through, and that the council was not set on any one design. ‘‘Our desire is for the success of Fishermans Bend,’’ she said. She said ‘‘appropriate infrastructure’’ was needed before Fishermans Bend was developed. ‘‘If there is no tram, we will have to build apartment buildings that have a much greater allowance for car parking. But Lord Mayor Robert Doyle was firm in his view of the design: ‘‘That is horrible.’’ ‘‘That design is the epitome of ugliness; it desecrates the Yarra and it desecrates Yarra’s Edge,’’ he said of the area of Docklands closest to the West Gate Freeway on the banks of the river. He said the proposed tram line, which would need to rise up to two or three levels in order to continue over the West Gate Freeway and reach Fishermans Bend, would ‘‘divide a community at Yarra's Edge’’.

The proposed tram line would also ‘‘ruin the only bit of open space that's there’’. "From an engineering point of view, we don't believe it can be built, he said. ‘‘Creating a tram-way in the air to divide a community like Yarra's Edge’’ was a terrible idea, he said. Cr Doyle said it was important to get public transport into the new Fishermans Bend area, and move people from one side of the Yarra to the other. ‘‘But this is not the way to do it.’’ ‘‘This is the most inelegant and simplistic [proposal] you will ever see. This looks like the Charles Grimes bridge with a bit of colouring in.’’

He said the design was ‘‘completely disrespectful to the Yarra and to the marina there, just so [Port Phillip Council] can get trams into Fishermans Bend’’. Fairfax Media approached Public Transport Minister Terry Mulder over the tram proposal. His office referred the matter to Planning Minister Matthew Guy, who will soon bring out the government’s final plan for Fishermans Bend, including multiple options for new public transport routes in the area. Port Phillip's proposed bridge would have space for pedestrians and cyclists, and the council has received advice it could cater for 30,000 people an hour during the morning peak time. The Napthine government is overseeing the rollout of the Fishermans Bend urban renewal project, a 240-hectare redevelopment of largely industrial areas as a residential and commercial suburb. Fishermans Bend is expected to eventually become home to 80,000 residents and support 40,000 jobs.

Cr Stevens said for this reason, the tram bridge was the council’s ‘‘number one state election priority’’. Engineering expert Martin Baggott, who formerly worked at engineers GHD specialising in rail design, said the drawbridge proposed as part of the plan was possible but had serious challenges. ‘‘It's not easy because of the overhead wire. That could be surmountable, but the real problem is the return current,’’ he said. He said there were very few international examples of drawbridges for trams – he pointed to a drawbridge with a train in Malaysia, while others have raised tram bridges in Europe as examples of comparable designs. Mr Baggott said such a drawbridge posed ‘‘considerable engineering difficulties. It's not impossible, but there are some pretty hard parts to it’’.

Mr Baggott said that, if the tram line did need to rise, it would not be a big issue. ‘‘Trams can get over considerable inclines,’’ he said, pointing to a tram overpass that was once on King Street that was relatively steep.