Secure Gate Systems, Inc. team members (left to right): Robert Bruno, Matthew Marchio, Kirk Pelton, Mike Marchio (owner and President) and Michael Marchio.

Shop Foreman Robert Bruno making the final adjustments to a new gate’s latch before the powder coat is applied.

Something as basic as a gate is easy to ignore, until it becomes a problem.

For an Alliance Pipeline facility near Chicago, gates were becoming a chronic problem. The safety egress gates in the facility were failing inspection, the victims of outdated construction and Chicago’s brutal winters. In 2001, when the facility couldn’t pass a safety audit because its egress gates either wouldn’t close correctly or wouldn’t open when they needed to, Alliance Pipeline contacted Mike Marchio and asked him to fix the problem.

Mike has half a century of background in gates and fencing—he and his brother started Marchio Fence Co. in 1967. But what Alliance Pipeline needed was something that didn’t exist.

“I talked over the situation with Alliance,” Mike recalls. “The company wanted me to come up with something new, something that wouldn’t have the problems that the existing gates did. That night, I went to bed and woke up in the middle of the night with an idea. All those fences and gates use round tubes—my idea was to build the gate out of squares.”

Based on that idea, Mike spent the rest of the night drawing and designing a new gate model that would later become the foundation for a new business. He would use 3-inch by 3-inch, 11-gauge steel to create a 360-degree frame with a subterranean gate pole cross member.

“The best gate in the world is no good if it shifts in the ground,” Mike says. “Frost can build up in the winter and push a gate up. We get around that using this construction method. The gate is sunk four feet deep into the ground, and we bell out the bottom of the holes—creating a space that’s wider at the bottom than the top—and fill the whole thing with concrete. It keeps the frost from pushing itself up and shifting the gate. We put those gates in there and they don’t move. They won’t shift up or down, forward or backward. No matter what you do, the gate still lines up with the latch just as it’s supposed to. It won’t bend or warp.”

The entire gate weighs about 300 pounds, Mike says, and is constructed entirely of steel. The latch and hinges are made of stainless steel, to prevent any chance of rust or corrosion freezing them in place. The gates can be outfitted with a key entry, a keypad, a card reader or even remote access. The “interior” side of the gate has a panic bar allowing for immediate egress. As a safeguard against unauthorized access, the gate includes a 4-inch steel overlay on the outside to protect the hinges and latch from any attempt to bypass them. According to Mike, without authorized access, the only way through one of these gates is by using high-powered torches, rescue saws or explosives.

“We built the first one in our shop as a prototype and put it in,” Mike says. “The client loved it, and I started to realize I had something here. The client originally couldn’t pass an audit, but now with the new gate system the client doesn’t have any problems. We’ve been putting in fences for 50 years, so we know what will work and what won’t. Everything we assemble is American-made, with American steel. We make our own stainless-steel hinges as well as most of our components.”

A New Enterprise

It didn’t take Mike long to realize the potential of the gate he’d created, and he began the process of patenting his new design and building a new company to build and sell them. Soon, Secure Gate Systems, Inc. was in business, with Mike as the President. His company, based in Joliet, Ill., manufactures high-security, industrial-grade, pre-hung personnel gates that have a variety of applications. These gate systems are beneficial in areas requiring enhanced security and safety measures, such as: gas, power and chemical plants; oil and gas refinery and pipeline zones; correctional institutions; and educational facilities.

Finding and seizing new opportunities is part of his family’s legacy. Mike’s father and uncle, Jake and Sam, respectively, started in the coal delivery business in the 1930s, building the Marchio Coal Co. into a successful enterprise that carried the family well into the 1950s. Anticipating the national economic move from coal toward oil and gas for heating, Jake and Sam left the coal business behind for plywood, opening the Marchio Plywood Co. The brothers handled more than just plywood, as they added paneling and trim to their services, along with ceiling and floor tile.

By 1963, Mike (Jake’s youngest son) began working in construction, learning how to install different kinds of fencing. In 1967, he and his brother Phil went into business together when they opened Marchio Fence Co., working out of Mike’s house.

Jake and Sam eventually retired, and the plywood business was merged into the fencing business. Phil retired next, and Mike now runs Marchio Fence Co. along with his two sons, Matt and Michael. The fencing business is still going strong today, handling multiple residential and commercial jobs in Illinois.

In the early 2000s, Mike recognized the opportunity his new gate design represented, and thought it was best served through an entirely new company. He was able to acquire a patent for the gate, a process he describes as “very, very difficult,” and has been growing the business ever since. He currently has almost 20 employees working for him at Secure Gate Systems.

“Have you ever tried to patent a door?” Mike asks with a laugh. “A door is a pretty basic thing. It’s pretty hard to get a patent on one. You’ve got to have something in there that’s really unique and different, that definitely sets it apart.” Fortunately for Mike, he did, and the patent was granted.

Security and Success

Having the family fencing company allied with Secure Gate Systems is, to Mike, a perfectly complementary situation, although many of Marchio Fence Co.’s clients don’t need a gate like the ones he offers. It’s unlikely, for example, for people to install these kinds of gate in the fences around their homes’ backyards. For the commercial clients who view the security offered by Secure Gate Systems as a necessity, however, the response has been tremendous.

The gates have had a lot of success in sites belonging to the oil and gas industry, Mike says.

“We sell a lot of gates to pipelines for their bell sites,” Mike explains, referring to the name for maintenance access points along a buried pipeline. “Warehouses and other commercial and industrial facilities also have a need for what we offer. I say wherever they have a turnstile, they need to put in our doors on either side of it. If you have an electric gate and you lose power, suddenly you can’t get out. With an egress gate like ours, you can always get out.”

As an example, Mike points to a tragic accident a few years ago in New Lenox Township near Chicago, just outside of Joliet. Two cars were drag racing and crashed through a safety fence and into an oil pipeline. The crude oil in the pipeline ignited, starting a furious blaze. The occupants of one car—the one that actually hit the pipeline—were killed immediately. The occupants of the other vehicle, injured in the collision, were unable to get past the fire and get out. Eventually, they escaped by climbing the fence, but not before suffering severe burns. In the wake of the accident, some local municipalities updated their laws for such facilities to require two means of emergency egress—via a gate like Mike’s—to ensure immediate escape is possible.

“It’s about safety as much as security,” Mike says. “These gates are designed to always function, always open when they need to. At the same time, there’s no way to get through them from the outside. The most secure part of your fence will be our gate.”