Processes applied for preliminary treatment of wastewater from refineries and petrochemical plants create the oily sludge, containing high percentage of water and only a bit less of hydrocarbons. This sludge is collected in storage tanks, because no application for it can be found. Our researches had as a first step the aim to convert this fluid sludge into solid substance (product) by adding of quicklime and then utilize the product in the road construction as a bottom layer of the road. The product should be added in the amount of a few percent comparing to the rest of soil. The second step of the research was an assessment of an impact of the product used for construction of experimental sections of roads and squares on environment by monitoring of surface and ground water quality in their vicinity. If the contribution of the product in total amount of the road material is less than 8% the influence is kept under limits.

Road construction relies on natural material exploitation and it is necessary to find new ways of reducing its negative environmental impact. Simultaneously, number of tyres placed on Croatian (and world) market is constantly growing and the need for waste tyres management will begin to increase due to the wear and tear of tyres in use at the moment. This paper presents a review of latest international and domestic researches on waste rubber application in road construction with special emphasize on Croatian researches within this topic. Preliminary results of ongoing research on waste rubber application in cement bound mixtures are also presented.