LIFTING& TRANSPORT
SITE REPORT
41
JANUARY 2015
ACT
A
llwasquiet at theNational
CorvetteMuseum inBowling
Green,KY in the earlyhours
of February2014. That changedat 5:39
a.m.whenmuseum employees responded
to theburglar alarm.What they found
wasworse than they couldhave imagined.
Several carsweremissing, but theyweren’t
stolenbyagroupof thieves. The classic
carshadbeen swallowedbyamassive
sinkhole.
Withinanhourof the incident, Ben
Baldockandhis teamof engineers found
themselves staringdownat agiant hole
in the floorof themuseum’s 140-foot-
diameter Skydome. Baldock is the civil
constructionprojectmanager for Scott&
Murphy, Inc., a regional contractor that
does civil and concrete constructionwork
for commercial, industrial andhighway
projects. The company’sbuildingdivision
had constructeda62,000-square-foot
expansion toanother sectionof the
museum, soBaldockwas familiarwith the
building.
After a fewminutes, itwas clear that
securing thebuildingand recovering the
collectableCorvetteswouldbeno easy
feat. The sinkholemeasuredabout 60 feet
wide and60 feet deep. It swallowed eight
carswitha combinedvalue exceeding
$1million.
Between engineering, planning,
organizing themanpower and
transporting theheavy equipment,
Baldockhadhishands full.Onegood
thingwas anewaddition toScott&
Murphy’s fleet of equipmentwould
make coordinating this job easier.A few
days earlier, Baldockhad receivedanew
custom trailer fromTalbertManufacturing
that hehadorderedwitha littlehelp from
anold friend.
Childhood friends reunited
Sevenhours southofBowlingGreen
inDothan,AL,Kytes Shockey is a sales
associate forTruckworxKenworth, a
Talbert dealer.Growingup inBowling
Green, ShockeyandBaldockwere
childhood friends. Theyplayed together,
pushingdirtwith toy trucks and riding
four-wheelerswhen theygot older.
They even toured theNationalCorvette
Museum together. But theypartedways
whenShockeymovedaway, staying in
touchandhangingoutwhen they could,
andattending eachothersweddings.
While theyworked in similar industries,
theyneverworked togetheruntil late2013.
Scott&MurphyalreadyownedaTalbert
trailerpurchasednew in1988. Evenafter
2millionmiles the trailerwasperforming
great, but the companywas ready for a
newone that couldprovide thehigher
capacityandversatility.
“Wehave adiverse fleet ofmore than
From sandbox
to sinkhole
Childhood friends, a new
Talbert trailer and eight
buried Corvettesmake for
an interesting job story.
Just days before the sinkhole collapse,
Scott &Murphy took delivery of a 55-ton
tri-axle Talbert trailerwith a 26-foot long
by 9-foot wide deck and pin-on fourth axle.
The 26-foot-long deck allows the company
to haul asmany as three smaller pieces of
equipment at a time.
