Communities right across the United States are facing a widespread and growing issue from aging water infrastructure, creating challenges that disrupt daily life.
Beneath our feet, leaking pipes quietly drain billions of gallons of water and millions of dollars every year, straining municipal budgets and threatening community resilience.
This surge in water main breaks and leaks is disrupting travel and business, causing costly repercussions for homeowners and businesses alike. In fact, the U.S. wastes more than 6 billion gallons of treated water a day due to pipe breaks and leaks and water main breaks alone cost Americans $2.6 billion a year in repair and maintenance costs.
To help municipalities address this growing issue, Oldcastle Infrastructure, a CRH Company, has launched the CivilSense™ ROI Calculator, a powerful water asset management tool designed to make the invisible visible. By converting complex operational data into clear financial insights, the calculator empowers decision-makers to quantify non-revenue water (NRW) losses, estimate main-break risk and understand the economic impact of aging infrastructure, in real time.
Turning Data into Actionable Insights
The CivilSense™ ROI Calculator uses readily available system parameters, such as network length, production costs and tax rates to deliver immediate feedback, as well as data gathered from CivilSense™ projects carried out across the country, to calculate:
- annual non-revenue water loss, in gallons and dollars,
- probably future main-break risks, and
- the direct and indirect costs associated with these breaks.
This capability helps water asset managers begin to quantify the risks inherent in their network and determine how urgently they need to conduct a more targeted analysis to detect and locate leaks.
This enables a shift from reactive maintenance to proactive planning, helping communities prioritize investments and strengthen their case for funding.
Supports Strategic Planning
Beyond loss calculations, the tool generates professional reports that bolster grant applications, budget proposals and board presentations. By translating technical assessments into financial language, the CivilSense™ ROI Calculator equips municipal leaders with the data-driven justification to strengthen the business case for infrastructure investments or leak detection and risk analysis projects.
The CivilSense™ ROI Calculator is about more than numbers; it’s about giving municipalities the insight they need to protect resources, budgets and the communities they serve, by facilitating a better understanding of water loss dynamics and their financial consequences.
From providing a safe, reliable and clean water supply, to providing a solution for utility providers to reduce water loss and associated repair and rebuild costs, CRH is committed to supporting transformative solutions to future proof our water infrastructure and provide a more water resilient future for the communities in which we live and work.