changes direction and flows northeast from Nagano into Niigata Prefecture where it changes its name to the Shinano River. The Shinano continues northeast to a confluence with Uono River between Ojiya and Uonuma (). After its confluence with Uono River, the Shinano is crossed by Koshiji Bridge and the Shinetsu train line before emerging onto Echigo Plains of the Niigata Prefecture at Sanjō. After entering the Echigo Plains the river becomes deltaic and swampy due to its very small gradient (an average of 1 in 4000). The , completed in the 1920s, diverts flood water northwest into the Sea of Japan while the river splits into a number of branches and continuing northeast. Approximately south of its mouth, the river turns north and flows towards Niigata. The Sekiya Diversion Channel was completed in the 1960s in response to flooding in Niigata continuing after construction of the Ōkōzu Channel. It is designed to mitigate flooding by diverting flood waters away from the city and straight into the Sea of Japan. The river turns northeast and flows through Niigata City for approximately before finally emptying into the Sea of Japan. The river is crossed multiple times as it meanders its way through Niigata, including by the Bandai Bridge which was, when it was originally built in 1886, the longest bridge in Japan at . The current Bandai Bridge, built in 1929 and designated as a nationally important cultural property, is only long. This is also in stark contrast with the river's width at the Ohkouzu Diversion Channel. Ōkōzu Diversion Channel Due to seasonal high rainfall in the Shinano's watershed the fertile farmlands on the Niigata plain were subjected to flooding every three to four years which destroyed crops, particularly rice, and villages. Attempts from local residents to secure funding to build a diversion channel began in the mid-early eighteenth century, during the Kyōhō era. Government support was not secured until the early twentieth century following severe flooding and inundation in 1896. Construction work on the began in 1909 and concluded in 1922. The success of the channel was short-lived, however, as the floodgate collapsed in 1927 due to erosion of the channel bed and was not fully repaired until 1931. The construction of the diversion channel has resulted in marsh fields drying on the Niigata plain which allows for greater production. Likewise, drier land has also allowed for the construction of infrastructure