Construction activity in Nevada is poised to accelerate after three design-team finalists made presentations to Las Vegas Convention Center stakeholders last week, vying to garner the $1.4-billion expansion-and-renovation contract and putting construction start on track for early 2018.

Two months after Hurricane Harvey struck Houston, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, who is also the county’s director of emergency management, proposed a set of 15 responses, including some new construction and restoration work, aimed at protecting the city from future floods.