A massive 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 about the hole revved up attendance and revenue for the museum in Bowling Green, an hour north of Nashville, Tennessee.
Board members reversed course by deciding against preserving a section of the gaping hole.
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 what happened when cars toppled like toys amid rocks, concrete and dirt when the sinkhole opened up in the museum’s Skydome.
The option of keeping part of the hole open lost favor because of added costs due to safety features, museum officials said.
The hole will be filled completely with rock, then workers will drill into it to install steel casings, Frassinelli said. Crews will pour grout into the casings, creating a steel and concrete pillar to provide additional support under the floor.
Attendance surged by 66 percent since the hole opened up, and revenue shot up 71 percent.
Museum membership has increased, and sales of merchandise are up at the museum, she said. The museum sells sinkhole-related shirts, postcards, prints and a 39-minute DVD about the sinkhole.
Meanwhile, the museum and Chevrolet have decided to repair three of the damaged cars.
Chevrolet will restore the 1992 white 1 millionth Corvette and the 2009 ZR1 Blue Devil, which was the first car pulled from the hole. Chevrolet will fund restoration of a 1962 black Corvette, but the museum will oversee the work. The other five were too badly damaged but will be displayed in their dented and crushed conditions at the museum.
The museum owned six of the cars and the other two were on loan from GM.
In all, General Motors will provide nearly $250,000 in support to help the museum recover from the sinkhole, the automaker said.
