Harmon hotel being taken apart bit by bit. Developers did not want to demolish hotel via implosion.

LAS VEGAS (AP) – Lawyers for casino giant MGM Resorts International and contractor Tutor Perini Corp. are set to tell a jury the other is to blame for flaws at a never-opened Las Vegas Strip hotel tower that was to have been the centerpiece of the massive CityCenter complex on the Las Vegas Strip.

Jury selection took six weeks, and trial is expected to take at least a year after opening statements Thursday in Clark County District Court.

Work on the Harmon Hotel tower work stopped halfway in 2008, after inspectors found that steel used on the first 26 stories wouldn’t support the remaining 22 floors.

While Perini, subcontractors and the casino company fought over who was to blame, the rest of the glitzy and glassy $8.5 billion development opened in 2009.

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