The National Corvette Museum showcases the Chevrolet Corvette, an Americansports car that has been in production since 1953. It is located in Bowling Green, Kentucky, off Interstate 65's Exit 28. It was constructed in 1994, and opened to the public in September of that year. The museum is located only a quarter mile from the Bowling Green Assembly Plant, where Corvettes have been made since 1981. Public tours of the assembly plant are unavailable as of June 16, 2017, and GM has given no indication when or if they will resume. Patrons can, through their local Chevrolet dealership, can add package option R8C which can give them a VIP tour of the Corvette Museum and assembly plant and patrons can have the option to build their own engine for their Corvette.
2014 damage
In karst areas, stormwater from roads, streets, parking lots, and roof drainage during heavy rains washes down through natural karst voids in the limestone bedrock, enlarging the voids until they cause the surface to collapse. This forms a sinkhole. After some rainy weather, on February 12, 2014, such a new cover-collapse sinkhole 40-foot-wide and 25-foot-deep opened under the floor of the Skydome area of the museum. Video from the museum's security camera shows the collapse occurring at 5:38 AM local time. Since this did not occur during visiting hours no one was injured although much of the Skydome area concrete floor collapsed. Cars were on display in the yellow cone-shaped Skydome that is a separate structure attached to the main museum. Eight rare and one-of-a-kind Corvettes, portions of the display stands and rails, large concrete floor slabs and dirt fell into the sinkhole, causing serious damage to some of the Corvettes. The Corvettes involved have an estimated value of a million dollars. The remaining 20 cars in the Skydome were immediately removed from that area. Between March 3, 2014 and March 6, 2014, 5 of the 8 Corvettes were recovered from the sinkhole. The spire area of the Skydome is being reinforced before work starts on removing the final three buried cars. A drone camera initially investigated inside the sinkhole. A microgravity geophysical survey indicated the possibility of additional voids extending from the main sinkhole toward existing sinkholes to the north and south. Exploration in the sinkhole discovered a cave passage 80 feet below the Skydome floor and that this previously unknown cave had an unstable area in its roof that collapsed. To provide independent structural support for the site, 46 micropiles 7 inches in diameter were installed to an average depth of 141 feet to reach competent bedrock. Structural engineering work also included a one-foot thick concrete slab poured on top of the sinkhole debris, then a double layer of metal sheet pilings, and filling with 4000 tons of sand to support a new concrete slab floor. This structural engineering work on the sinkhole was estimated to cost $3.2 million. As this extensive work started, the museum reopened the day after the sinkhole appeared although the Skydome remained closed until September 3, 2015. Then on February 12, 2016 the Corvette Museum opened the “Corvette Cave In” exhibit, an interactive display about the sinkhole collapse, the cars involved, karst landscapes, and more. Like the Dishman Lane sinkhole collapse in 2002, also in Bowling Green, Kentucky, the Corvette Museum sinkhole shows altering the natural stormwater flow greatly accelerates creation of sinkhole collapses. Too much soil moisture or too little soil moisture reduces soil strength to result in collapses of soil cavities. Collapse of a soil cavity can trigger the collapse of a cave roof where there are pre-existing weaknesses in the underlying bedrock. Clusters of sinkholes are indicators where additional sinkholes will form:
Sinkhole density is an important factor for determining the area most prone to sinkhole development. Where a closed depression has collapsed into a sinkhole we know that the underlying subsurface contains unstable voids, and possibly a cave system. In areas where active sinkholes have developed there is a greater possibility that a new sinkhole will form.
The Kentucky Geological Survey provides "Generalized Geologic Map for Land-Use Planning" for many individual Kentucky counties showing where there are clusters of sinkholes.
The museum also sponsors the Corvette Hall of Fame for individuals who have been involved with the Corvette automobile and made significant contributions in their respective fields. Each year, from two to four persons are inducted into this select group.
