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Across the country there are signs that the nation鈥檚 construction economy is slowly beginning to turn around. While the local market continues to be weak, there are positive signs here as well.

Reading the national headlines, I鈥檓 seeing an encouraging trend of more and more projects announced that have a 鈥淏鈥� after their dollar amount rather than an 鈥淢.鈥� What I mean by that is that there are more 鈥榖illion鈥�-dollar projects happening than 鈥榤illion鈥�-dollar ones.

That鈥檚 a positive sign. Inevitably, it will mean more workers showing up at jobsites, less downward pressure on bidding, and a slow return to prosperity for beleaguered contractors.

While the local trend has not been as grand, there are positive signs. Even though Intel鈥檚 DIX project is the metropolitan area鈥檚 only current billion-dollar project, other major ones are beginning to take shape.

A 鈥渟uperblock鈥� project is on tap in Portland鈥檚 Lloyd District. News broke that . There are even various whispers of other projects costing hundreds of millions of dollars. These all provide reasons for optimism. After all, even folks who don鈥檛 work on mega projects probably benefit from the runoff of accompanying commercial and residential investments.

Yet, I think many of us are still worried about the long-term health of our local economy.

During our two most recent recessions, we鈥檝e seen our local economy hit both harder and for longer than many parts of the nation. And in that time, little has been done to structurally change that. Maybe it can鈥檛 be changed. But it鈥檚 time to at least have that conversation.

On Friday, Associated Builders and Contractors鈥� Pacific Northwest chapter will hold its 鈥淐onstruction Industry Summit鈥� in Portland, at the Oregon Convention Center. At the event, we will take a sobering look around the industry. We will look at what鈥檚 happened, but also where we all hope to go from here.

In the coming month, I will also be reaching out to other organizations within the construction industry 鈥� general contractors, subcontracting groups, homebuilders and designers. My hope is that we will find a way to sit down and talk about what our local economy needs to start building again. And then we can focus on the solutions that will get us there.

For too long, we鈥檝e enjoyed the big booms 鈥� and then felt the big busts harder than others. That is not healthy for either our economy or the construction industry.

It is time for a big idea 鈥� something that can transform the way our region is viewed. We need reforms that make us a destination in good times 鈥� and bad times.

That鈥檚 how we are going to turn the local economy around and make it healthier for years to come.

John Killin is president of the Associated Builders and Contractors鈥� Pacific Northwest chapter and executive director of the Independent Electrical Contractors of Oregon.