930 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 468

stand in the same relation, bear the same benefit assessment,
and be subject to the same regulations and penalties as though
the system so acquired had been constructed and put into
operation by said authorities; provided, however, that said au-
thorities may take into account and compensate for any por-
tion of the cost of constructing the privately owned system
that they may determine to have been paid by properties abut-
ting upon any portion of said system. Whenever there is in
existence a privately owned water supply or sewerage system,
which in the judgment of said authorities is unfit as a whole
or in part for incorporation into the general system established
by said authorities, said authorities may disregard the exist-
ence of said system or unfit part thereof, and extend their sys-
tem to serve the area tributary to the existing private system
or unfit part thereof, and all the provisions of this Act relating
to systems constructed by said authorities shall apply to said
extensions.

SEC. 11. And 6e it further enacted, That said authorities
may enter upon any highway for the purpose of installing,
extending, altering, maintaining and operating a water supply
and/or sewerage system, and may construct or repair in any
such highway a water main or sewer or any appurtenance
thereof upon the receipt of a permit from the proper author-
ities; provided that whenever any highway is disturbed, said
highway shall be repaired and left by said authorities in the
same or a not inferior condition to that existing before enry,
and that all costs incident thereto shall be borne by said '
authorities.

SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That all individuals,
firms, and corporations having buildings, conduits, pipes,
tracks or other physical obstruction in, over or under the
public roads, streets, or alleys of the county or municipality
which shall block or impede the progress of the municipal
water supply or sewerage system while in process of construc-
tion, establishment, alteration or repair, shall upon reasonable
notice from the authorities of said municipality promptly so
shift, adjust, accommodate or remove the same at their own
cost and expense, as to fully meet exigencies occasioning such
notice; and should the exigencies of any case involve the tak-
ing in a constitutional sense of the franchise or right, in the
exercise of which such obstruction had its origin the mu-
nicipality shall be empowered to condemn an easement in said
franchise or right. Any individual, firm or corporation before
laying any pipe or conduit under the public highways in any
municipality, shall present to the proper municipal authorities
adequate plans showing the size, type and location of any pipe
or conduit to be laid, and shall not lay any such pipe or