Before Gardermoen opened in 1998, Oslo's airport was at Fornebu, on a peninsula just 8 km from the city centre. Fornebu was particularly convenient for people living on the western side of Oslo - Bærum, Asker, and down towards Drammen. But the airport was too small and couldn't expand.
Norway spent over 30 years arguing about where to build a replacement. The debate was so contentious that 13 different transport ministers handled the case.
The original favourite was Hurum, a peninsula south-west of Oslo. Parliament voted for Hurum in 1988. A Hurum airport would have stayed close to the population centres on the western side of the fjord where many of Norway's wealthiest municipalities are located. But there was a problem: Hurum was also close to Rygge military airfield and near the route to Torp. Some argue the real concern was that Hurum would have prevented any secondary airports developing in the south.
Then weather surveys showed Hurum was prone to fog. Pilots and meteorologists protested, claiming the data had been manipulated. Two government committees found no irregularities. In 1994, the engineer who'd alleged the manipulation fell to his death from a hotel window in Copenhagen. The circumstances were never explained, and all documents disappeared.
With Hurum off the table, Parliament voted for Gardermoen in 1992. To avoid political interference, they created a special independent company - Oslo Lufthavn AS - to build and run the airport. This kept the project outside the annual budget process and away from public sector unions. Construction cost 11.4 billion kroner and came in 6% under budget.
For Norwegian public projects, coming in under budget is almost unheard of. Most run 50-100% over, some reach 200%. Since this success, the Gardermoen company model has never been repeated. When the government introduced oversight rules for major projects in 2000, they specifically exempted aviation. Some observers suggest politicians weren't keen on a system that proved they weren't needed.
The airport wasn't perfect. In the final phase, planned toilets were cut to make room for shops. The queues from opening day took until the 2017 expansion to fix. And two months after opening, freezing fog damaged twenty aircraft engines in a single morning.
Nearly 70% of passengers use public transport to reach the airport - one of the highest rates globally. The Flytoget express takes 19 minutes to central Oslo. But if you're coming from Drammen, you're now an hour from the airport instead of the 30 minutes it took to reach Fornebu. The western side of the fjord has been arguing for better connections ever since.