There has been a lot of talk about the National Corvette Museum sinkhole and many people have since had the chance to visit the museum to see the infamous hole, the damaged cars, and the fortunate few which have been restored. Today there was a ceremony held in which the “First Rock” was tossed back into the hole symbolizing that the filling of the hole has finally begun.

The rock was inscribed with Awesome God, Everyone Safe by Executive Director Wendell Strode who said, “The good Lord let it happen. It was roughly a quarter to six in the morning and we did not have anyone in the museum. No staff, no visitors, no guests. We’re so thankful for that.” She then lobbed the rock into the hole after nearly seven straight weeks of construction.

A Bobcat has been lowered into the hole to level out the gravel and other aggregate used to fill the hole. As you can see from the pictures, the hole was quite massive and has made for quite a unique job. Strode also mentioned, “Each side of the cave is approximately 30 feet long and about 20 feet high. It’s just not feasible to fill the entire cave with rock so the construction team had to get creative with plugging every crevice.” In addition to the aggregate, they have used steel sheets and gunnite to add strength.

The museum has even decided to add a manhole at the hope of having an exhibit which will enable guests to move a remote controlled camera throughout the underground tunnel. The goal for completion is July of next year, with the exhibit opening on Labor Day weekend 2015, in conjunction with the NCM’s 21st Anniversary Celebration.

We wish the National Corvette Museum the best of luck in completing the project!