I don’t understand why a pipe network should even imply any authority at all. Modern subway construction in most western cities is routinely stalled due to find

I don’t understand why a pipe network should even imply any authority at all. Modern subway construction in most western cities is routinely stalled due to finding some random victorian era pipe that isn't on any current utility map, probably built by whoever built that block of properties initially, and promptly lost to time in less than a hundred years due to there being no central authority for these things until the most modern cases.