MOUNT PLEASANT - Traffic is flowing freely again on Stuart Road, and those who live along it are split over whether the results justify the controversial project.

Crews finished work on the road south of Old Spring Street last month. They widened it and added both bicycle and parking lanes.

The village paid residents about $350,000 to acquire the necessary land to widen Stuart Road and contractors another $3.3 million for the construction, said Bill Sasse, director of engineering for Mount Pleasant.

At first, Lennie Juliano opposed the plan. Living on the west side of the road, he was one of the homeowners who stood to lose the most land to the widening.

Juliano said last week he's thrilled with the newly rebuilt road. The dedicated parking lane makes things easier for customers who come to his home-based business, where he repairs and sells lawn mowers and snowblowers.

Because the street's surface was lowered, Juliano said he also has fewer problems with water seeping into his home.

"The sump pump barely runs anymore, because the drainage is so good," he said. "I had to go downstairs and make sure the thing was still working."

Before the weather turned cold, Eileen Schroeder saw families walking and biking down the road. That's a welcome sight, she said, and one that was rare before the reconstruction.

"They've all got their helmets on," Schroeder said. "It's like a row of ducks."

But the finished product has only solidified the opposition from other residents who live along Stuart Road. Already more cars are speeding on what was previously an unsafe street, Bob Govas said.

"Instead of 30, they're going 50, 60," he said.

Those problems went on during several months of construction despite the road technically being closed to through traffic, Glenda Pollock said. At one point, she said, she bought a Hot Wheels radar gun and tested it on cars zipping past her home.

The village had trees cut down and replaced with several lower-hanging species to avoid problems with power lines. To Pollock, they can't replace the four large spruce trees that shielded her property for years.

"We didn't see the road," she said. "We didn't really hear the traffic."

In the planning stages, dozens of residents showed up to meetings to protest the project. They complained that the rural character of their neighborhood would be lost.

Some angrily accused village leaders of ignoring their wishes. Pollock and Ron Krizan sued Mount Pleasant, and she said the lawsuit was settled out of court for more than the village initially offered for the piece of property.

Officials don't yet have updated traffic numbers, but Sasse said he doesn't expect much of a change from the estimated 7,000 cars that traveled Stuart Road daily before the construction. The goal was to withstand traffic that was already coming, he said.

Foes aren't convinced. Stuart Road, which becomes Willow Road as it goes south, is one of few direct routes between Spring Street and Durand Avenue.

Schroeder said the village's check to her went toward a new roof, while neighbors made similar improvements to their homes. She dismissed critics as those who "thrive on negativity."

"If we die today, progress is going to go tomorrow," she said. "Spring Street, at one time, was a little dirt road. But can it stay that way?"