Dear grower,
If you have a high tunnel contract from NRCS, or you are waiting to hear, you already know the kit is the easy part. A dozen companies will ship you steel, poly and hardware for somewhere around $3 to $6 a square foot. Nobody ships the two or three people and the two or three dry days it takes to put it up.
Here is what a standard 30 by 72 actually asks for. Ground posts set to the manufacturer's depth and spacing, in a rectangle that is truly square, measured corner to corner, or the bows will not line up. Bows, purlins and bracing. Two framed end walls, at least one with a door. Hip boards and roll-up sides. Then a sheet of 6-mil greenhouse poly bigger than a tennis court, pulled over the top on a morning with no wind and locked down with wiggle wire before the breeze comes up.
Growers who have built one with friends tend to say the same two things: it took longer than the manual said, and they needed more hands than they had.
Then there is checkout. Your NRCS payment comes after the tunnel is up, at your state's rate per square foot of what you actually built, once the conservationist has looked at the finished structure. The state forms I have read ask them to record the manufacturer and model and the as-built length and width, to confirm the cover is on and the end walls and a door are in place, and to keep a copy of the kit's paperwork. Some recommend photos.
None of that is hard. All of it is easier if someone wrote it down while the tunnel went up.
So that is what Tunnel Crew is:
- A fixed price per square foot for a standard tunnel, quoted from a short form.
- Any manufacturer's kit. You buy the kit you want; the crew builds it to that manufacturer's instructions.
- A local two-person crew, licensed and insured as your state requires, from fence, pole-barn or deck work, trained on one checklist.
- A signed photo pack, one photo per checklist item, in your inbox the day the build ends, ready for your field office.
This is what the checklist looks like on the crew's phone. It is a sample, drafted from published NRCS state forms, not a finished Michigan checklist:
Sample checklist of twelve items a crew photographs during a build
alek@tunnelcrew:~$ checkout --sample --size 30x72
loading checklist: sample, drafted from NRCS state forms size: 30 x 72 = 2,160 sq ft [ok] 01 utilities marked before digging (MISS DIG 811) .. photo [ok] 02 site slope under 5 percent ...................... photo [ok] 03 posts at manufacturer depth and spacing ...... photo x4 [ok] 04 layout square, diagonals measured equal ......... photo [ok] 05 bows, purlins and bracing per kit manual ..... photo x3 [ok] 06 peak height at least 6 ft ....................... photo [ok] 07 end walls framed and covered, door hung ...... photo x2 [ok] 08 roll-up sides or vents per kit .................. photo [ok] 09 6-mil UV greenhouse poly on and secured ... photo + label [ok] 10 as-built length x width = square feet ........ measured [ok] 11 disturbed soil seeded or mulched ................ photo [ok] 12 kit make, model and manuals attached .............. pdf pack: 12/12 items, signed by crew lead, sent to grower note: a sample, not a promise. the conservationist decides checkout.
NRCS does not approve installers or endorse brands, and nothing here is approved or endorsed by NRCS or USDA. Tunnel Crew is not the contractor, either. The crew contracts with you under its own insurance and any licence your state requires, and you pay the crew directly. I never hold your build money.
And I cannot promise your payment. The conservationist decides checkout. What I can promise is that the tunnel goes up to the kit's instructions and your contract, and that you get the paperwork that shows it.
For a standard 30 by 72 or 30 by 96 on reasonable ground, I expect the build to land around $2 a square foot. That is about $4,320 for a 30 by 72 and about $5,760 for a 30 by 96. It covers the labour from the first post to the last wiggle wire. It does not cover the kit, delivery, site grading, electrical, lumber your kit does not include, or a township permit if yours asks for one. Your crew confirms the final price from your site details before you commit to anything.
When you book, there is a $250 scheduling fee to Tunnel Crew, refundable in full until a crew confirms your date.
| size | sq ft | build at ~$2/sq ft |
|---|---|---|
| 30 x 72 | 2,160 | ~ $4,320 |
| 30 x 96 | 2,880 | ~ $5,760 |
| booking fee | $250, refundable until a crew confirms | |
For context: the NRCS state payment schedules I have read put a standard high tunnel at about $4.91 to $6.17 per square foot (West Virginia, Vermont and Rhode Island, 2023 to 2026), with higher rates for historically underserved producers. Some states cap the payment; Pennsylvania's 2026 cap is $10,000 per operating unit. Rates and caps vary by state and year, so check your own contract.
I'm Alek. I'm a software developer, not a builder, and I won't pretend otherwise. What I can build is the quote, the schedule, the checklist and the photo pack, and I can find the right crews and hold them to one standard. I'm starting in Michigan for spring 2027 and taking names from neighbouring states.
If you would rather hire a crew than round up your neighbours, reply below. It takes about a minute, nothing is charged, and I'll write back to you myself.
Thanks for reading,
AlekAlek, building Tunnel Crew