The District Department of Transportation says it’s narrowing Wheeler Road Southeast after a series of traffic crashes on the road in Ward 8, including one last week that left  a 9-year-old in critical condition.

The third-of-a-mile project would narrow Wheeler Road from four down to two lanes from Alabama Avenue to Mississippi Avenue, DDOT Director Everett Lott said Thursday.

DDOT showed designs with a painted median and flex post bollards at a press event, but Lott said the community would have input on the final design before construction begins sometime after April when the weather improves enough to get the project done. The project would also put in a dedicated pick-up and drop off zone at KIPP D.C. preparatory school.

The 9-year-old was hit by a driver after he left KIPP. He was crossing the street to get to the waiting family. Just two months ago two girls were seriously injured by a driver on “Walk to School Day” at Wheeler and Mississippi.

Lott says the narrower road will force drivers to slow down. In the meantime, DDOT installed speed cameras along the road on Monday.

“All we need is for people to slow down, obey the rules of the road,” Lott said. “We’re going to do what we can as we re-engineer our roadways to make them safe.

“But when people are just aggressively driving, recklessly driving, on their phones driving… it results in someone like a young person or a parent or family get hit… It devastates all of us.”

DDOT has been looking at the road for a redesign for a while.

Councilmember Trayon White (D-Ward 8) said in an Instagram post that “DDOT can’t determine human behavior, so we just need to slow down and be considerate.”

DDOT also gave updates on their efforts to move faster on quick-fix traffic infrastructure solutions in D.C. Lott says they’ve put in 100 speed bumps, added four-way stop signs, and “turn hardening,” which adds flexible posts or small rubber speed bumps to slow drivers down while turning, at several intersections in the weeks since the program was announced.

Lott said those improvements would happen in all eight wards, but DDOT is also looking at high crash corridors in Ward 8 like Alabama and Mississippi Avenues.