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Corvette Museum Decides to Fill in Sinkhole

Corvette Museum Decides to Fill in Sinkhole
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By West Kentucky Star Staff
Aug. 30, 2014 | BOWLING GREEN, KY
By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 30, 2014 | 10:12 AM | BOWLING GREEN, KY
If you want to see the sinkhole at the National Corvette Museum, you better go before November.

At their quarterly meeting, the Board of Directors at the Museum finalized plans for repairs after the February 12 collapse that swallowed eight classic cars. After review of revised plans and price quotes from construction companies, the board voted to completely fill in the hole.

“We really wanted to preserve a portion of the hole so that guests for years to come could see a little bit of what it was like, but after receiving more detailed pricing, the cost outweighs the benefit,” said Museum Executive Director Wendell Strode. “At the June board meeting, the information available at that time indicated a cost of around $500,000 more to keep the hole, but after incorporating additional safety features and vapor barriers for humidity control, the price tag rose to $1 million more than the cost to put the Skydome back how it was.”

Keeping even a portion of the sinkhole would require 35 foot retaining walls to be built inside of the sinkhole, additional micro piling, visible steel beams running through the hole, and soil nailing. All of these features would keep the hole safe and prevent cracking and breaking in the future, but diminish the natural look of the original sinkhole. The board also considered future maintenance issues that could arise if the hole was kept, and the possibility that the hole would no longer look like it naturally occurred.

“The interest in our new attraction has been phenomenal so we do plan to leave it ‘as-is’ through our Vets ‘n Vettes event November 6-8, 2014, after which time we will begin the process of remediating and filling the hole,” Strode added.

Chevrolet and the National Corvette Museum will restore three of the Corvettes that were damaged when they were swallowed up by the sinkhole - the 2009 ZR1 Blue Devil Prototype, the white 1-millionth Corvette, and the 1962 Corvette.

The remaining five cars were determined to be too badly damaged to warrant restoration. They will remain as they were when recovered, and be part of a future display, to preserve the historical significance of the cars and what happened on February 12.

General Motors will giving nearly $250,000 to help the Museum recover from the sinkhole. The National Corvette Museum celebrates its 20th anniversary this weekend as it welcomes the Corvette enthusiasts nationwide who have helped expand and support the non-profit Museum.

Museum officials said in June that attendance was up nearly 60 percent since the sinkhole collapse.     

The museum is located close to the only automobile plant where Corvettes are made.
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