WRITTEN QUESTION No. 814/98 by Shaun SPIERS to the Commission. Use of porous asphalt in road-building
Date: 1998-03-26
Institutions: European Parliament, SPIERS
Subjects: EU programme, building materials, environmental protection, motorway, new technology, research report, road building, road safety, transport safety

C 354/26

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

19. 11. 98

On 30 April 1997, the Commission adopted an (cid:145)Action plan for transit in Europe (cid:150) A new customs policy(cid:146) (1).
In this action plan, the Commission describes the computerisation of the transit procedures as the key to transit
reform. Under the New computerised transit system (NCTS), the return copy of the transit documents will be
replaced  by  an  electronic  message,  allowing  a  faster  discharge  of  the  transit  operations  and  increasing  the
operational security. Pending the introduction of the computerised system, the Commission has launched a series
of operational measures to speed up the return of the transit documents to the offices of departure. A network of
national transit coordinators and local contact points was established and Member States were required to adopt
national  transit  management  plans  following  a  commonly  agreed  structure.  On  the  legislative  side,  the
Commission proposed to clarify the deadlines for sending back the return copy of the transit documents and to
reorganise the centralised offices.

(1)  COM(97) 188 final.

(98/C 354/55)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0814/98

by Shaun Spiers (PSE) to the Commission

(26 March 1998)

Subject: Use of porous asphalt in road-building

Does the Commission have any data on the use of porous asphalt as a road surface › particularly for motorways
and trunk roads › across the EU? Has it carried out any research into the efficacy of porous asphalt in reducing
noise pollution and increasing road safety (by better drainage)?

Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission

(30 April 1998)

The Commission has no information regarding the use across the Community of porous asphalt as a road surface
material.

There is some research work which relates indirectly to the subject raised by the Honourable Member:

COST  Action  324  concerns  the  development  of  methods  to  measure  road  pavement  performance.  The  final
report,  now  available (1),  describes  the  work  carried  out  to  integrate  national  studies  on  long  term  pavement
performance  for  use  at  European  level.  COST  324  was  succeeded  by  the  still  ongoing  fourth  framework
programme project PARIS (performance analysis of road infrastructure).

COST action 333 looks at the development of new bituminous pavement design methods, and is planned to be
finalised by February 1999.

Research  within  the  Brite/Euram  1  programme,  finalised  in  1993,  compared  various  types  of  road  surfaces,
including porous asphalt, with concrete roads, in accordance with environmental acceptance and traffic safety.

(1)  EUR 17546, No ISBN 92-828-0308-2, 1997.

(98/C 354/56)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0815/98

by Richard Howitt (PSE) to the Commission

(26 March 1998)

Subject: Sewage treatment plant: San Juan De Los Terreros (Pulpi)

My constituent, Mr Howard, owns a villa in San Juan De Los Terreros, Pulpi, Almeria in Spain. The sewage
treatment plant is some 400 metres away from his property, and is the source of extremely foul smells, which my