The difference between Present Perfect/Continuous Tense, which is normally symbolized by word 'have/has' and past participle of finite verb, and Simple Past Tense, which is normally symbolized by past tense of finite verb, is the beginning time as well as the continuity of such action.
If one action took place in the past with no continuity, normally, we use Simple Past Tense to describe it, whereas, if one action took place in the past with continuity to now, supposedly, we use Present Continuous Tense to do so.
Within this question, the action we have to describe is 'lead',so, if we use Present Continuous Tense -'have led', the description we made will including a implication that those concerns started to lead the construction around 1876, and have kept continuously leading it to nowadays, eventhough the construction was over in 1904.
This doesn't make sense.
