Merge 2 pages to optimize link juice

I have client site with 2 pages that both relate to pretty much the same thing. There is a slight difference in focus, they built these pages to focus on the industries served rather than focusing on the product, which is the exact same thing for both industries.

One page is PA 44 and the other is 39. Each page has 100's of incoming links.

The primary keyword of one is really same as the other with one word added. The competition is pretty tough, with very strong authority sites at the top (Home Depot and Lowes for example). The PA 39 page is #15 in Google for the main keyword (2 word phrase), and the PA 44 page is currently ranking #7 for the other (3 word phrase - word tacked onto the front of the 2 word phrase). The 2 word phrase gets about 10 times the search volume, and it is specific enough to be a primary goal.

Essentially what I want to do is merge these 2 pages with a focus on the product, which is also the big daddy primary keyword. People search for the product, not the industry they are in! My thinking is to consolidate the link juice and hopefully rank better. It would also make for a better user experience.

Both pages are fairly well optimized, but neither has the big primary keyword in the url.

My questions:

1. Do you think this is a good idea?
2. Should I create a new page and redirect both of the existing pages to it, or choose one and redirect the other to that? I've read that a redirect loses a small amount of juice, but I've never tested it.
3. What other issues might there be that I am not seeing?

Thanks in advance for you replies. This is my first post, I have been spending a lot of time reading this forum and I gotta say it rocks.

1 no try do have 2 spots on first page instead of one ;P
2 if you decide to do it then you should know what you are doing with redirect or use plugin for keeping link juice
3 go for google domination not just first position , i would take position 2 + 3 instead of just 1 any day

1. Its going to pretty hard to have more than one spot for the primary keyword - it's very competitive with very authoritative sites at the top as I said. This site has lots of authority as well, but not like Lowes or Home Depot. They used to have top 5 spots for both of these keywords, but in the past 2 years that has changed. I'm trying to fix that for these 2 keywords in particular.

2. Yes, that is what I am trying to get some insight from you guys about.

3. I think thats pretty covered in 1.

We do have a string of sites, and are building more. That is working very well for multiple spots on in the top 10 for other kws, but this one is not happening.

Any other input?