Refined bitumen is derived from crude petroleum. The European bitumen industry (EU 15) produces some 16 million tonnes each year for use in the manufacture of road materials and a wide variety of specialist building and industrial products. Of this 85-90 per cent is used in the construction and maintenance of bituminous, or asphalt roads. The production is a specialist activity and is not carried out in all oil refineries. Bitumen requires crude oils with specific characteristics and only some crude oils are suitable. There are over 90 oil refineries in Europe (EU15) of which around 60 produce bitumen. Bitumen is an engineering material and is produced to meet a variety of end-use specifications based upon physical properties. Bitumen may be customised for special road applications and hundreds of grades have also been developed for the non-road industrial segment, including paint, roofing, water and sound-proofing.

Asphalt is typically a mix of approximately 95 per cent aggregate and sand, and five per cent of bitumen, which acts as the binder. There are over 4,000 hot mix asphalt plants in Europe, producing some 300 million tonnes of hot mix asphalt per year. Asphalt is fully recyclable and recycling has increased significantly in recent years. Quantities recycled directly back into road surfaces vary from country to country, but can be as high as 70 per cent.

The European road network (EU25) is nearly five million kilometres long. It is comprised of:

• Motorways: 59.8 thousand km
• National roads: 355.1 thousand km
• Secondary or regional roads: 1,267.4 thousand km
• Other roads: 3,264.1 thousand km

 

The European traffic population is 213 million passenger and 31 million commercial vehicles .