Corvette-gulping hole to be filled in

Sunday, August 31, 2014

A large sinkhole that swallowed eight prized sports cars won’t be a permanent attraction at the National Corvette Museum in Kentucky.

The museum’s board of directors voted Saturday to fill in the entire hole that opened up in February and became an Internet sensation. Curiosity over the hole revved up attendance and revenue for the museum in Bowling Green, an hour north of Nashville, Tenn.

Mindful of the hole’s popularity, museum officials in late June were leaning toward keeping part of the hole open and putting a crumpled sports car back in it to memorialize the incident, in which cars toppled like toys when the sinkhole opened up in the museum’s Skydome.

The option of keeping part of the hole open lost favor because of the added costs of safety features, museum officials said.

“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,” Executive Director Wendell Strode said.

To keep part of the hole, workers would have installed 35-foot-tall retaining walls and inserted beams in the hole to prevent future cracking, said museum spokesman Katie Frassinelli. Costs mounted to about $1 million — double earlier estimates — because of safety and humidity-control features.

The museum didn’t disclose how much it will cost to fill in the 60-foot-long, 45-foot-wide, 30-foot-deep sinkhole.