ELK SHINGLE PLANT, HORST EXCAVATING MOVES 540,000 CUBIC YARDS.

(January 11, 2000) Lancaster, PA Horst Excavating, a Horst Group company, (formerly named Bilran Excavating) is providing excavation services on 75 acres of a 125-acre site in Jackson Township East of Myerstown, Lebanon County, for the ELK Corporation of Texas. The excavation job contracted at approx. $3.5 million through Century Contractors, Inc., started on August 23, 1999, and will result in 540,000 cubic yards of earth to be moved before January, 2000. Estimated by Horst Excavating’s Bob Blandy and Steve Eurich using state-of-the-art technology, the project is the largest amount of earthmoving on a single site to date for the Lancaster-based Horst Excavating. Century selected Horst Excavating due to the company’s detailed site analysis prior to bid and commitment to aggressively meet the initial critical milestones. Horst Excavating was able to maintain schedule, despite two autumn hurricanes. Bob Blandy attributes Horst’s success thus far to the highly skilled equipment operators and field management team "doing whatever it takes, including sealing the site so hurricanes run off with minor impact and working ahead of the storm to divert storm flows around current work areas."

The site work also includes the installation of approximately 3 miles of storm drainage, water and sanitary systems and gas line excavation. With heavy limestone in the region, 100,000 cubic yards of rock was blasted each day at noon during the workers lunch break. The explosions resulted in an area as large as a house lot raising at least 12 feet into the air. In addition to the tremendous amount of rock "shot" or blasted, 300,000 cubic yards of earth has been moved as "cuts" and "fills." Active equipment on the site includes 13 scrapers, one grader, two 30-ton articulated dump trucks, three dirt rollers, one 50-ton off-road truck, one skid steer loader, three hydraulic excavators and three soil compactors. Century’s dedication to Safety earned them the National President’s award in November, and their safety team efforts combined with those of the Horst Group's safety team have resulted in ZERO lost time injuries to date at this site.

The new Elk shingle plant will be similar in size and capacity to its most recent plant built in Shafter, California. The Myerstown facility will be dedicated to provide premium laminated shingles which will be shipped to wholesale roofing distributors throughout the northeastern states. Elk will continue to produce its premium asphalt fiberglass products at its three existing manufacturing facilities in Ennis, TX, Tuscaloosa, AL, and Shafter, CA. The northeastern states are currently serviced by the Elk Ennis facility. Elk’s northeastern states’ sales activities will continue to be managed from its regional sales office located in Hunt Valley, MD. Elk has been producing asphalt shingles since 1955. The company is headquartered in Dallas and has been a subsidiary of the Dallas-based Elcor Corporation since 1972. Elcor is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol ELK). When this project is complete, ELK Corporation of Texas (www.elkcorp.com) will have built their fourth shingle plant for approximately $70 million. This plant will bring more than 150 jobs to the greater Myerstown area.

The Site Construction Manager for ELK is George (Sonny) Roller and the Project Manager for Century Contractors, Inc. is Jim Cavender.

Directions to the site: From State Route 501 in Myerstown turn East onto Richland Avenue and travel 1/4 mile to the site.

The Horst Group is a family of diversified construction, property management and insurance companies (Horst Construction, Horst Excavating, Horst Masonry, Horst Painting, Horst Property Management, Horst Insurance and Horst Financial Services), serving the mid-Atlantic region. Situated in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania's Granite Run Corporate Center, the Horst Group has a tradition of service dating back to 1880. To contact the Horst Group, call (717) 581-9800 or visit www.horstgroup.com.

.For more information regarding this release, please contact Karen Haski, Communications Manager, Horst Group, call (717) 581-9817 or email to khaski@horstgroup.com