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For years, Sedona has been wedged between its red rocks and a hard place: Its scenic views draw an ever-growing number of tourists, but its residents want to preserve the small-town atmosphere.

Although the northern Arizona town is a quiet hamlet on most weekdays, weekend visitors jam its narrow roads.

But now, there is compromise: An expansive highway project in the works for nearly five years is improving access to Sedona while maintaining the charm upon which the town's appeal has been built.

The delicate balance is noticed along Arizona 179. What once was a bland, narrow, two-lane road connecting Sedona to Interstate 17 is now a blend of the aesthetic and functional.

More left-lane turnouts cause fewer backups, bike and pedestrian lanes allow residents to enjoy the picturesque beauty and roundabouts ease the flow of traffic.

The $100 million highway project, the majority of which was paid by state and federal funding, is a bellwether for Sedona's future, where tourists will have improved access and residents can rest easy knowing the town has been shielded from a sprawling highway.

It's expected to be completed next year.

But harmony in the face of an upended Arizona 179 - which has been chaotic at times with blinking orange construction markers, boulders and raw, red dirt - was a long time coming.

Construction plans were first presented to residents of Sedona and the Village of Oak Creek in late 2003. But the ideas, drawn up by the Arizona Department of Transportation, didn't go over well.

Opposition to more lanes

ADOT offered more lanes. Residents wanted the road to remain quaint one lane each way. They didn't want a busy highway running through town, saying it would disrupt the environment and their way of life.

Many feared that a four-lane highway would change the area's vibe. An estimated 3 million people a year visit Sedona, but only about 17,000 live in the Greater Sedona area.

Kristin Darr-Bornstein, public-outreach manager for the ADOT project, said everyone agreed that the 9-mile stretch of road from the Village of Oak Creek to Sedona needed an upgrade.

"It hasn't been improved in a couple of decades," she said.

A lot of people didn't understand that adding lanes is not the only way to increase a road's mobility, she added.

Improving the road was a scary prospect for residents, but a thorough public process made it easier.

Jennifer Wesselhoff, president and chief executive officer of the Sedona Chamber of Commerce, said business owners and residents feared updates to the old Forest Service road would open the floodgates to more development and people.

They had seen how Prescott had sprawled and didn't want that to happen to their town.

There would be no new lanes in Sedona, but tweaks to the road's design would help keep traffic moving and still preserve the town's charm.

" 'Balance' is the key word," Wesselhoff said. "The road needed to fit with our character."

Cyclists' new confidence

Edd Zielinski is using newly paved sidewalks in the Village of Oak Creek to ride bikes with his kids.

The last time he had tried riding his bike from his home in the village to his office in Sedona was more than 16 years ago. He did it once and didn't do it again.

It was just too scary.

He had to share the road with cars, and drivers were easily distracted by the views.

A resident of the area for nearly 20 years, Zielinski can also see the tourist point of view: He is executive vice president of ILX Resorts Inc., which runs Los Abrigados Resort & Spa and Premiere Vacation Club at Bell Rock.

The business relies on the millions of visitors who come to the area to enjoy hiking, jeep riding, shopping at galleries and visiting vortexes.

He sees how new sidewalks allow tourists and visitors to ride or walk to galleries and, once completed, to shops in uptown Sedona.

Bike lanes give riders a little more confidence and a lot more space.

The new highway provides a divided median that will prevent drivers from turning at inopportune places. The turn lanes allow traffic to pass instead of piling up.

The much-debated roundabouts, of which 11 will eventually dot a path from the village to uptown Sedona, are meant to keep vehicles moving instead of stopped at traffic lights.

Eric Levitt, Sedona's city manager, said some of the same things that improve the quality of life for residents also enhance the quality of visits for tourists.

"There's a lot of enhancements that are subtle," Levitt said. "The same reason people live here is the same reason people want to visit here."

Effect on business limited

If business at the Secret Garden Cafe was slow, it was tough to tell. There were only a few tables open at lunch time on a recent Friday as diners in a cozy, green garden talked over the noisy digging of a construction vehicle a few feet outside the gates of the Tlaquepaque Arts & Crafts Village.

But James Cecil, co-owner of the restaurant, said business is slower than usual.

He can't lay all the blame on construction, however. High gas prices and the overall economy are making an impact, too.

Cecil commended ADOT for the work it has done to keep traffic flowing at what is now the busiest and most traffic-logged construction zone along the route: the area where Arizona 179 meets the bridge that crosses Oak Creek.

ADOT workers stand at the entrances to the shopping center with flags, stopping traffic when visitors need to turn across oncoming lanes.

"We're just looking at the positives now," Cecil said.

Cecil and his wife need to hose down the patio of their restaurant at the end of each day because of dust from the construction.

Still, they're happy they have a patio to hose down and guests who want to eat outside on it.

Candace Peterson-Cecil laughed as a customer asked for a discount to compensate for the inconvenience caused by construction.

The topic comes up regularly among locals, as a joke, but Peterson-Cecil said it really hasn't fazed out-of-towners.

"We were really nervous," Peterson-Cecil said of the impact from construction. "But we've been happy. Most people haven't said much."

Little hassle for visitors

It might be because they've seen worse. And they expect a slower pace in Sedona than they might in a big city.

Dave Warman, 42, of Scottsdale, hadn't heard about the construction before driving up from the Valley with his family to show Sedona to a friend who was in town from Iowa.

Warman said the construction, though extensive, didn't really impact their trip.

"It wasn't too bad," he said. "It wasn't slow. At least they're doing it all at once."

Wendy Lippman, managing partner of Tlaquepaque, is pleased that visitors have had access throughout the construction process to the 47 tenants in her center.

She said that the road project has been trying at times and admits that she fears for the prosperity of some of her business owners. But she insists the economic downturn has had an impact equal to that of the construction.

"There is a shakedown," Lippman said. "It's a game of survival of the fittest. Even when you get people in here, they still have to pull out their wallet."

That money is crucial. A study of Sedona-area tourism completed in 2006 found that day-trippers and visitors who spend an average of three nights in Sedona pump $372.6 million annually into the local economy.

Beth Bradshaw sees the changes from both sides. Bradshaw lives part-time in Sedona and part-time in Cave Creek. She isn't wild about the construction, but she knows it needs to be done.

It will allow tourists to keep coming and spending, Bradshaw said, adding that Scottsdale Road is more of a pain than navigating construction barriers in and around Sedona.

"I really thought they did a good job," Bradshaw said of the finished plans for Sedona.

She thinks the construction will be nothing more than a speed bump.

"Are tourists going to stop coming? I don't think so," she said.