WAYNE, NJ-Pothole season is upon us and truck drivers should watch out for swerving cars, according to Hankook Tire.

Based on a recent survey, 37 percent of American four-wheelers noticed more potholes in the spring of 2014 than 2013 and although drivers see the potholes, most don’t know how to safely navigate around them. 

Hankook found that only 14 percent of drivers follow the right protocol to avoid pothole-damage (safely slow down to prevent potential damage to the vehicle’s tires, wheels or suspension components).  And that 54 percent of Americans admit to swerving to dodge a pothole.

The take-away lesson for CDL drivers is to watch out for swerving cars while pothole season is here (and getting worse, according to experts).

Playing chicken

Fourteen-year-old David Ballas of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec, has found a solution to fixing potholes with chicken feathers, according to the Montreal Gazette.  

Ballas’s discovery – that you can mix chicken feathers with asphalt to form a more waterproof surface- took the form of a science project, which won first prize at his school’s science fair. Ballas will now be able to represent his high school at the Montreal Regional Science Fair at Concordia University.

After consulting with a few chemists, Ballas looked up “hydrophobic” materials – water repellent, in other words and found the answer in chicken feathers. Chicken feathers, it turns out, not only repel water, but are also wasted in abundance annually.

Ballas told the Gazette he used two containers to test whether or not the chicken feather asphalt worked better than regular asphalt: “One container had regular asphalt, the other asphalt mixed with two per cent feathers. When I tested the regular asphalt, half the water passed through it… The one I made with chicken feathers had almost no water pass through.”

Todaystrucking.com reporters have contacted a reputable paving company for their feedback on the chicken feather asphalt and are waiting for the results.

In the meantime, Ballas’ idea could soon be patented, according to reports.