BOWLING GREEN, Kentucky — The National Corvette Museum remains open despite a large sinkhole that opened in its Skydome section February 12, swallowing eight prized Corvettes.
The Skydome area of the museum is the only portion currently closed to the public
Teams of engineers and construction personnel have been on-site since day one, securing the area and moving forward with repairs of the sinkhole.
“Concerning the safety of the facility at the National Corvette Museum, it is important to understand that the Skydome is an independent structure that is isolated from the remainder of the facility with a building expansion joint,” said Kevin Krantz, structural engineer with K&S Engineering. “The collapse of the slab-on-grade within the Skydome has not compromised the structures of the remaining facility.”
“For the safety of the public, our firm has monitored the facility daily since the morning of the collapse and will continue to monitor the facility daily until all repairs are completed,” said Dennis D. Smith and Matt Rogers, of DDS Engineering. “During this monitoring, we have seen no indication of additional collapses; therefore, we believe that the National Corvette Museum is safe and encourage the public to continue visiting.”
The sinkhole and damaged cars have become part of the museum experience. Two barrier walls have been installed between the Skydome building and the rest of the museum. One wall includes a video monitor that shows live webcam footage of the work being completed in the Skydome, while the other wall has a Plexiglas viewing area so that guests can see the sinkhole.
The eight Corvettes will be eventually restored by General Motors but will be displayed at the museum until July once they are recovered from the sinkhole. The cars that fell into the sinkhole include a 2009 Corvette ZR1 and both the 1 millionth and 1.5 millionth Corvettes ever built.
The only Corvette assembly plant is near the museum.
