Corvette Museum

[JThomas]

The National Corvette Museum received a call at 5:44am from their security company alerting them of their motion detectors going off in the Skydome area of the Museum. Upon arrival it was discovered that a sinkhole had collapsed within the Museum. No one was in or around the Museum at the time. The Bowling Green Fire Department arrived on the scene and secured the area. The Fire Department estimated the size of the hole as 40 feet across and 25-30 feet deep.
Eight Corvettes were affected by this incident. Those cars include:

• 1993 ZR-1 Spyder on loan from General Motors
• 2009 ZR1 “Blue Devil” on loan from General Motors

The other six vehicles were owned by the National Corvette Museum including:

• 1962 Black Corvette
• 1984 PPG Pace Car
• 1992 White 1 Millionth Corvette
• 1993 Ruby Red 40th Anniversary Corvette
• 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 Corvette
• 2009 White 1.5 Millionth Corvette

None of the cars affected were on loan from individuals. The Skydome exhibit area of the Museum is a separate structure connected to the main Museum. A structural engineer has been on-site to assess the existing damage and stability of the surrounding areas. The structural engineering firm did determine that the perimeter of the Skydome is stable. The museum has worked with its insurance adjustor to retain a construction manager and they will be coordinating all work moving forward.
The Museum has been closed to the public for the day to allow careful assessments to the situation.
With the 20th Anniversary celebration, Grand Opening of the NCM Motorsports Park, and the National Corvette Caravan coming August 27-30, there is a lot to be excited about in 2014, and the museum looks forward to getting the Skydome repaired and reopened very soon.
The museum will be open on Thursday for normal operations, although the skydome area will be blocked off and not accessible for viewing. Numerous engineers, geo-technical experts, and karst/sinkhole experts have been there throughout the day and they feel the rest of the building is safe. While this is a tragic event and there is a lot to do to repair the skydome, we are very thankful that it happened at a time when no one was here or injured.
The National Corvette Museum has insurance on both the cars and the property. Their insurance adjuster has also been there and is working with them on the next steps. The NCM has retained the firm who built the 2009 building expansion, as their construction managers for this project. They will work with the foundation engineers and structural engineers to determine the best plan to stabilize the surrounding areas, repair the hole and everything else.
The NCM will continue normal operations, as much as possible, and will welcome visitors and members to the 20th Anniversary celebration as planned.
There is a link on the homepage of the NCM website to various photos and videos including the security camera video of the actual collapse up until the power was cut to the camera system. There is also mini helicopter footage filmed from inside the hole. www.corvettemuseum.org
All cars that were on display in the Museum's Skydome, not affected by the sinkhole, have been safely removed.

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[taximan]

Originally Posted by LGAFF

Wonder if the museum itself has sinkhole coverage for the building....earth movement is excluded under most base policies. I am not referring to the cars but the building structure.

Lee,

I know Marsh writes the cover for the museum. I am sure they had all bases covered with a property DIC, incl. quake, flood, and earth subsizement.

My big ? is what agreement GM had with the museum on those cars ? Since GM is self insured for the first $1.0mm, I am guessing the NCM assumes all responsibility from the General.

And since autos are generally excluded from coverage of property of others, that should be interesting.

Wouldnt look real good for GM to sue the NCM.

I left a message for Adam Boca, but I dont think he's involved with NCMs own insurance.

[BigJohn]

Originally Posted by Mystic ZR-1

...hope the dyno sheets didn't fall into the hole.
That would certainly put an end to the dyno sheet "problem"...

Wy?
You will never see them anyway!!!

[GOLDCYLON]

I would not be surprised if a lot of the building beyond the dome is compromised. If thats the case it may be a resite and rebuild. And it would be cheaper. GC

[ZZZZZR1]

Latest from Wendell. VERY GOOD NEWS!!!





David

[Dynomite]

Originally Posted by GOLDCYLON

I would not be surprised if a lot of the building beyond the dome is compromised. If thats the case it may be a resite and rebuild. And it would be cheaper. GC

You may have a point
This may be very interesting as there may be many buildings in the area sitting on large very deep undetected caves which have taken hundreds or even thousands of years to develop.

Sink Holes may take hundreds or even thousands of years to develop

[Paul Workman]

More than one sinkhole opened at the same time in the area, according to local reports. This email sent to me by a friend in KY.

______________________

Good Evening Mr. Paul:

I red about this in todays paper, & it was all over the TV News all day. Our son lives
& works in Bowling Green. He told Maggie this evening that there were two more
sink hole in line with this one that occured about the same time.One was in a socker
field, & the other was at a site of a nw business being constucted. Sounds like maybe
a small earthquake ma have occurred. That is really a shame that the corvettes were
involved in this mess. I have had several over the years a few years back in my much
younger days. Hy, its past my bedtime. Later.

[undercover]

Question is - will you ever feel comfortable parking your Z in that parking lot?

[Meanmyz]

Originally Posted by undercover

Question is - will you ever feel comfortable parking your Z in that parking lot?

Yes! Your odds are much better there than everytime you drive your car out on a public road.

[GOLDCYLON]

Originally Posted by efnfast

That was cool, shame he didn't know how to fly it.

My thoughts as well. More footage of the operator lol than the damage