A corm petroleum bitumen was modified by addn. of either (i) p-xylene solns. of acrylic polymers or copolymers produced sep. by radical polymerization or (ii) resp. monomers and their radical polymerization in the bitumen medium. The bitumens were addnL filled with rubber dust or colloidal SiO2, used as coatings and studied for softening temp., hardness, bending strength, mol. structure (X-ray diffractometry), thermal resistance and crystallinity. The poly(glycidyl methacrylate) and copoly(vinyl acetate/butyl acrylate/allyl methacrylate) showed the highest mol. masses. The addn. of copoly(vinyl acetate/butyl acrylate) and copoly(vinyl acetate/butyl methacrylate) resulted in the highest decrease of softening temp. of the bitumen coating. The addn. of poly(methacrylic acid), poly(allyl methacrylate) and poly(glycidyl methacrylate) resulted in an endothermic effect of the decompn. of the coating. The addn. of copoly(butyl acrylate/glycidyl methacrylate), copoly(vinyl acetate/butyl methacrylate/ally) methacrylate) and copoly(methacrylic acid/butyl acrylate) resulted in increasing the thermal resistance of the bitumen mass. No substantial differences between polymers (i) introduced in p-xylene soln. and (ii) produced in situ in the bitumen mass were obsd.