Its eastern end was moved south from Harrison Hot Springs to Agassiz in 1956, and then east to Ruby Creek in 1968.

The highway is named after Nelson Seymour Lougheed, MLA for the Dewdney District and the BC Minister of Public Works (1928–1929), who ran a logging company in the area.

Highway 7's total length under the jurisdiction of the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation (MOT) is 118 km (73 mi).

Highway 7 is signed as far west as Granville Street on Broadway in Vancouver, all the way east through Burnaby into Coquitlam, which is under the jurisdiction of the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority (TransLink).

The section under the MOT's jurisdiction begins at the westbound exit with Highway 1 near Schoolhouse Street, with a total length of 2.3 km (1.4 mi).

[11] From 1928 to 1931, contractors and the Public Works Department built in sections what is now the present alignment of Lougheed Highway from the Pitt River Bridge through to Mission.

Ideas for a highway connecting Haney to Mission the via the path the Lougheed takes today can be traced back at least to 1919.

[21][22] The missing link in the road from what is now Lakeside Drive to Blue Mountain St. and Brunette Avenue was completed by June 1948.

[23] On August 14, 1950, the present truss bridge that carries eastbound traffic over the Coquitlam River was officially opened by Roderick Charles MacDonald.

[24] In September 1954, the section of Lougheed through the flats south of Maillardville and around Cape Horn was opened in a two-lane configuration.

[d][43][44][45] Around 2001, work to widen Lougheed highway from Brunette Avenue to Schoolhouse Street in Coquitlam to a six-lane cross section was completed.

[49] From May 2018 to July 2020, work was underway to widen the portion of highway between Nelson Street and the Silverdale area in Mission.

[53] As a result, two mudslides occurred late that evening near Seabird Island on the Agassiz-Haig section of the highway, trapping nearly 100 vehicles between the two slides.