AG Davenport Takes Action to Move to Protect Taxpayers and Preserve Competition in Proposed CRH–Arcosa Merger

Settlement Requires Sale of Some Asphalt Plants in New Jersey                                                               

Complaint | Consent Judgment

TRENTON – Attorney General Jennifer Davenport today announced the filing of a proposed consent judgment to preserve competition in the market for hot-mix asphalt (HMA) used to build and repair New Jersey’s roads.

As a condition of CRH PLC’s proposed acquisition of Arcosa, Inc., New Jersey will require the sale of multiple HMA plants, including facilities in Flemington, South River, Hillsborough, Howell, and Pennington. CRH proposed to buy Arcosa in June for more than $8 billion.

“By requiring the sale of these asphalt plants before the merger can proceed, we are ensuring that New Jersey taxpayers are protected from the higher prices that would almost certainly result from a near monopoly in this market,” said Attorney General Davenport. “This agreement keeps the market competitive and safeguards the millions of public dollars spent every year on road infrastructure.”

The complaint filed alongside the proposed final judgment alleges that CRH and Arcosa together would control roughly 75% of the supply of HMA approved by the New Jersey Department of Transportation across Mercer, Hunterdon, Somerset, Middlesex, and Monmouth counties if the merger were to proceed without conditions. This level of concentration would eliminate vital head‑to‑head competition, increase the likelihood of higher asphalt prices, and burden New Jersey taxpayers, who fund hundreds of millions of dollars in road infrastructure projects each year.

Antitrust action was especially important here because the market for HMA has high barriers to entry: new competitors need significant time and investment to set up production facilities and test products that meet NJDOT specifications. For example, any new players in the NJDOT-approved HMA market would have to purchase appropriate land close to an aggregate quarry, build a plant, procure the necessary land-use and environmental permits, and obtain NJDOT approval of each HMA mix made. So if the merger were to proceed without the agreed-upon divestiture of the existing plants, road infrastructure projects in New Jersey would likely have been completed at a higher cost to State taxpayers, or at a minimum significantly delayed.

The settlement gives the State of New Jersey sole discretion to approve the buyers of the divested assets, ensuring that the facilities remain in the hands of viable competitors capable of keeping prices fair.

The complaint and proposed final judgment were filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey October 20, 2026, and are awaiting judicial approval.

Attorney General Davenport was represented in this matter by Assistant Attorney General Brian McDonough, Antitrust Section Chief David Reichenberg, and Deputy Attorney General Samuel Kontos-Bleifer in the Affirmative Civil Enforcement Practice Group, under the supervision of Deputy Director Sara M. Gregory, within the Division of Law.