I'm about as interested in the creation. Did people just go down and install them? Was this an "ask forgiveness, not permission" scenario? If not, how did they

I'm about as interested in the creation. Did people just go down and install them? Was this an "ask forgiveness, not permission" scenario? If not, how did they get the permission of everyone above? Or how deep do land rights even go? I ask this partially too because most of the highways in my state were originally privately funded and built, and only later funded by government fees. I just wonder what happened to the "let's just go do it" mentality of rallying people to cooperate and getting things done. Almost seems like it would be hard to do worse than the current bureaucratic nightmares.