Things along the river

 Walking along the path on the east side of Naka River, I came to a flat place with no buildings. There was a narrow road on the other side. It did not look like the usual empty lot for some reason. I little thought and I realized that it was not usual because the top soil had been scraped off of a section extending from the river to the road.

 Turning toward the river, I could see that it all made sense. They are building a new bridge. The support in the middle of the river is finished and some of the work on the foundations at either bank are nearly finished. The budget is, as is frequently done, probably spaced out over a number of years so that so that work starts and stops as it is done under various budgets. It is also normal to divide large projects like this up into separate parts with different companies doing each. This spreads the public funds around and helps the economy.

A little farther along and I looked down at a sandbar. There was what at first looked like a meter and a half long tree branch lying at the edge of the water. However, as I watched, it started to move. It was a large black snake. I was glad that I was standing on the top of the four meter high riverbank.