An open claw reached into the river, straining and grappling for a strong hold.

The claw's body tipped slightly on its front end as it groaned, unearthing the back half of a pickup with a wooden flatbed, its rusted gas tanks full of water and the wooden planks rotted away from decades underwater in the North Platte River.

This truck was one of many large objects that 71 Construction's excavator exhumed from the banks of the river west of Brian Stock Trail Bridge on Thursday morning.

"We will be working on this section for however long it takes. We pulled a car up this morning from down there," said 71's owner Ken Schulte as he pointed upstream toward the bridge.

The Casper construction company volunteered its time and manpower, working in conjunction with the city of Casper to remove offensive and potentially dangerous debris from the river.

By 9 a.m., the south side of the river was littered with 4,000- to 5,000-pound chunks of concrete, metal bars colored orange from rust, weathered tires and pieces of rebar.

Crawling along the banks and in the water while removing the junk is more complicated than simply sending an excavator out for a morning.

The Department of Environmental Equality requires turbidity permits from the city of Casper as well as Evansville and periodic updates on the river's water condition after the removal.

Craig Smith, a senior geologist with Trihydro Corporation, takes readings of the water up and down stream from the project, assessing the amounts of sediment in the water and reporting to the DEQ.

Trihydro is donating this service to the city.

Some cars more embedded in the banks will be removed at a later time when the banks can be properly stabilized.

This is the first stage of many to remove unwanted objects from the river, in a project that will span up to 10 years.

Reach Christine Robinson at (307) 266-0639 or christine.robinson@casperstartribune.net