Aging infrastructure is responsible for an estimated $6.4 billion1 in lost revenue each year in the U.S. due to water leaks and main breaks. Coupled with underinvestment and increasing regulatory demands, the country’s national water infrastructure is quite literally at breaking point. Fortunately, digital technologies are enabling smarter water asset management, helping to identify hidden issues before they escalate into major problems.
CRH is focused on a wide range of transformative developments across water infrastructure, and its latest collaboration is no exception.
Announced this week, CRH has expanded its capabilities in water asset management, with an investment in, and partnership with VODA.ai, a global technology company focused on using AI to quickly and accurately identify areas in underground clean water systems that are at high risk of failure. VODA.ai is a standout innovator whose AI-driven technology enables the prediction of likely pipe failures, the consequence of those failures and associated business risk. Its platform provides detailed insights into the condition and risk of water and wastewater systems.
The investment, led by CRH’s venture capital unit, CRH Ventures, will support VODA.ai’s growth and expand its R&D capabilities.
Meanwhile, Oldcastle Infrastructure, CRH’s leading water infrastructure business in North America has struck a partnership with VODA.ai through its water asset management platform CivilSense™. This builds on its existing partnership with FIDO Tech, which enables real-time AI-driven leak detection. Together, the two complementary services aim to reduce water waste and cost and improve water resilience by identifying and sizing pipe existing and predicted leaks, empowering utility providers to make smarter, data-driven decisions that prioritize repairs and investments with confidence.
CivilSense™ is now the first system of its kind to combine predictive analysis and real time AI-driven leak detection to accurately identify where main breaks are most likely to occur, detect and locate the leaks that cause those breaks, and assess how large those leaks are. This comprehensive offering means CRH can now effectively give customers the ability to allocate labor and budget effectively, prioritizing efforts where the greatest water loss is occurring.
This exciting collaboration with VODA.ai reflects CRH’s commitment to supporting transformative solutions that address the world’s most pressing infrastructure challenges. Water is a finite resource we cannot afford to mismanage, and by investing in technology that can make a real difference, CRH is helping to prevent water loss and deliver safe, reliable and clean water to the communities we serve, by helping our customers to make the invisible visible.
1Source: Bluefield Research - https://www.bluefieldresearch.com/tackling-the-trillion-gallon-problem-water-loss-reduction-initiatives-benefit-utilities-and-consumers-alike/
