The main inspiration for the design—in which the forts are blasted into the mountains rather than constructed on top of them—came from Vaberget Fortress near Karlsborg Fortress. Vaberget Fortress was built in the 1890s and its southern fort was the first fort in the world that fully used the protection provided by the bedrock itself by having all of its functions embedded in the mountain. Vaberget Fortress served as a prototype for Boden Fortress and many more future fortifications in Sweden, including the late 20th century fixed army and coastal artillery batteries that gave the Swedish Fortifications Agency world renown. Preparatory work was started in 1900 and consisted of a diverse number of tasks, ranging from purchase of beds for the construction workers, construction of a new loading site for the railway, building roads to the various construction sites and clearing the land of those sites. The plan for the Fortifications at Boden ()—which was the term used until the First World War when the present name Boden Fortress came into widespread use—was largely based on the proposal laid forward by the Fortification Committee of 1897, with only minor modifications.