Hipperholme Crossroads

Hipperholme Crossroads is in the centre of village with the same name in Calderdale,Yorkshire, roughly halfway between Halifax and Brighouse on the A58. It is part of the signposted route between between Halifax and the M62 to the east; it is the narrowest part of this route, and the corners of the crossroads are not only sharp but blind as well, meaning that any turning traffic has to slow down or stop to make the turn safely. As a result, it is a notorious bottleneck, and during the week the A58 through the village is severely congested for most of the day, in both directions. (In that respect it is much like the Broughton crossroads near Preston, in the days before the A6 bypassed the village.)

A simple signal-controlled crossroads cannot adequately handle the sheer volume of traffic using this junction, which includes a substantial proportion of heavy goods vehicles, which cause the most significant loss of capacity when turning. The length of peak-time tailbacks typically varies from a few hundred yards to stationary traffic backed up all the way to Stump Cross, over a mile away and well outside the village.

If the flow of traffic is restricted further due to severe weather, temporary traffic lights or a broken down vehicle, Hipperholme jams have been known to tail back all the way to Halifax town centre, and the southermost outskirts of Bradford.

Routes

Route	To	Notes
A58	(M62 East), Leeds
A58	Halifax
A644	Keighley
A644	(M62 West), Brighouse
A649	Dewsbury