FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 1997                             (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

NEW HAMPSHIRE ASPHALT CO. ABANDONS PLANS TO BUY PLANTS IN VERMONT
  AND NEW HAMPSHIRE AFTER JUSTICE DEPARTMENT EXPRESSES CONCERNS

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Pike Industries, a New Hampshire-based
aggregate and asphalt concrete company, abandoned its efforts to
acquire a quarry and two asphalt plants from a New Hampshire
highway construction company after the Justice Department
expressed concerns that the deal would reduce competition and
lead to higher prices for aggregate and asphalt concrete in
Vermont and New Hampshire.  

     The Department said today that if the acquisition had gone
forward as proposed, Pike Industries would have become the
dominant aggregate and asphalt concrete company in East Central
Vermont and West Central New Hampshire and would have possessed
the power to increase prices. 

     The Department's Antitrust Division conducted a joint
investigation with the Office of the Vermont Attorney General.   

     Pike Industries, headquartered in Tilton, New Hampshire, had
initially proposed to acquire a Brattleboro, Vermont asphalt
plant, as well as a quarry and an asphalt plant in Walpole, New
Hampshire from Frank W. Whitcomb Construction Company, a Walpole,
New Hampshire highway construction firm.  

     "If Pike Industries had acquired the quarry and asphalt
plants owned by Frank W. Whitcomb Construction Company, customers
such as the New Hampshire Department of Transportation and the
Vermont Agency of Transportation would likely have had to pay
higher prices for the aggregate and asphalt used to build roads,"
said Joel I. Klein, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge
of the Department's Antitrust Division.  "The decision by Pike
Industries to abandon this transaction preserves competition for
consumers of aggregate and asphalt." 
 
     Aggregate is used in the production of both asphalt concrete
and ready-mix concrete.  Asphalt concrete, also known as
blacktop, is used principally for construction and resurfacing
roads, driveways and parking lots.

     Klein added that this investigation was another good example
of the close cooperation between federal and state antitrust
enforcement agencies and how those joint enforcement efforts help
consumers.

     Pike Industries is a subsidiary of Oldcastle Northeast Inc.
of Washington, D.C.  Oldcastle is a subsidiary of CRH plc of the
Republic of Ireland.  In 1995, Oldcastle and its other recently
acquired subsidiaries had sales of about $660 million.
     
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