The Norwegian Parliament undertook to build LOFAST in 1989. The building work started in the autumn of 1993, but it would be a whole 14 years before the road connections were realised. Both environmental conservation interests and businesses in areas that would be left in a backwater struggled to find an alternative route. Disagreement about the choice of route led to a complete halt in the building process once the first 20 kilometres between Fiskebøl and Raftsundet had been completed in 1998. However, after 14 years of construction, including construction breaks and a tug of war concerning the choice of road, the connection between the Lofoten island kingdom and the mainland became a reality in 2007, when LOFAST was officially opened on 1 December by Queen Sonja.