3 LICO CNC Screw Machines Find New Home in Underground Illinois Manufacturing Facility

Gateway Fabrication Solutions, Columbia, Illinois, purchased 3 LICO LNT multi-slide CNC screw machines for their new “underground” manufacturing facility in Valmeyer, Illinois. The facility was built within the old limestone tunnels inside Rock City Admiral Parkway, 20 miles outside of St. Louis, Missouri.

Rock City is an underground industrial park with lighted streets big enough for two semi-trucks to pass. The 6 million-square-foot cave was created over decades by workers tunneling into the river bluff at the former Columbia Quarry. Valmeyer purchased the quarry in 1995 and leased it to a developer.

A total of 220 people are now working in various businesses underground in Rock City including the National Archives, which is a government storage center for personal records.

Gateway Fabrication Solutions will be using their new LICO LNT multi-slide CNC screw machines to produce component parts. Owner Michael Wiegand says every part they produce on their LICO machines in their Rock City facility are parts that were previously manufactured in China.