If you just based your expectations on the initial press release from Harris Teeter, shoppers in North Durham would already be shopping at a modern, well-lit, well-stocked supermarket on the site of the old Willowdaile movie theater on Horton Road.

Of course, as we all know, that hasn't exactly come true, and until very recently the old moview theater site and its parking lot, located behind the donut shop and Napa Auto Parts at Guess and Horton has sat vacant. And instead, the nearest HT has remained a small, dimly-illuminated convenience-store version of the popular North Carolina grocer, instead of a modern, larger store such as that on MLK Jr. Parkway by the old South Square.

Well, things seem to finally be moving forward. Big earth-moving equipment is on site ripping up asphalt and starting site preparation work, so it looks like nearby residents will be able to actually see the new supermarket going up soon.

As we talked about here earlier this month, there apparently remains interest from the grocery chain in a location at Hillandale Rd. & Front St. just to the south, assuming the NCDOT's widening of Hillandale north of I-85 includes decent access for the shopping center. An official close to the widening project noted on Monday that the full-median design DOT presented in a December public meeting at NCSSM was in fact very likely all along to have that sort of access, with the state looking for input from the public on precisely what kind of turns and signalization were desired. (One could imagine, say, a left turn lane from northbound Hillandale onto Front St. as well as direct access to the old Loehmann's Plaza site.)