Lars Hellik  Strøm came up with the idea of developing a freight terminal at Kopstad as  early as 2006. Lars H Strøm is the managing director of freight transport for Norway’s truck freight terminals . The terminals in Drammen were about to be redeveloped, and he recognised an urgent need for a new freight terminal on the west side of the Oslofjord. He entered into positive negotiations with the then Jernbaneverket (the Norwegian National Rail Administration) in 2008, and a zoning plan for the area was adopted in 2012. Agreements with Jernbaneverket  were also reached on in-filling and a promise of high-capacity branch lines.  You can read the letter from Jernbaneverket in 2012/2013 here. This provided a good basis to begin the development of the area. Norsk Gjenvinning joined in and is now responsible for dumping in-fill material to create building sites.

When the municipal sub-plan for double tracks on the Nykirke - Barkåker stretch of the Vestfoldsbanen was adopted (2016), the plan included a branch line from both the north and the south to the terminal area at Kopstad via a service line. You can find the drawings here, and an excerpt from the plan description here. As the Vestfoldbanen project developed, the service track was moved for cost reasons and the high-capacity branch line was reduced to a single, short  line from the north alone. This resulted from an internal decision by Bane NOR that there should be a reduction in freight traffic on the Vestfoldsbanen line.