Proposed M62 J25/A644 Improvements

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AndrewH
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Proposed M62 J25/A644 Improvements

Post by AndrewH »

Kirklees Council have proposed a new road scheme to reduce congestion on the A644 east of Junction 25 of the M62 and congestion where the A644 meets the A62 at Cooper Bridge.

At the moment traffic stacks back from Cooper Bridge, along the A644 and often up the slip road back onto the M62 at Junction 25 at peak times.

https://www.yourvoice.westyorks-ca.gov.uk/A644LinkRoad

Option A - the A644 is dualled east of the M62 to approx half way along where there will be a new dual carraiageway link road to Bradley Road, bypassing Cooper Bridge. The Cooper Bridge roundabout will also be improved.

Option B - This is reduced to the A644 only gaining an extra lane towards the M62, and the link road will be single carriageway

Option C - This is further reduced with the link road only being one way towards the M62

Option A is obviously the best, Option C is quite frankly barmy.
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Re: Proposed M62 J25/A644 Improvements

Post by Bryn666 »

Some interesting designs here.

Cooper Bridge is of course a horrific bottleneck in itself. It is worth noting all the link road options bypass the 15'9" bridge on the existing road, and thus opens up the whole of east Huddersfield.
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Robert Kilcoyne
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Re: Proposed M62 J25/A644 Improvements

Post by Robert Kilcoyne »

AndrewH wrote: Mon Dec 03, 2018 20:45 Option A is obviously the best, Option C is quite frankly barmy.
As I see it, traffic heading from the M62 to eastern Huddersfield would still need to use the existing Cooper Bridge junction if Option C is chosen, so the benefits for traffic heading towards eastern Huddersfield from the M62 would be very limited. And I would have thought that the majority of traffic leaving the westbound M62 at Junction 25 would be heading towards eastern Huddersfield, and not to Dewsbury. (Conversely, the majority of traffic leaving the eastbound M62 at Junction 25 would be heading towards Dewsbury). The Cooper Bridge junction will only be fixed if M62-Huddersfield traffic is removed from the junction altogether i.e. by making the new A62-A644 link road two-way, ideally as dual carriageway, so that the only traffic still using Cooper Bridge would be A62 Huddersfield to A62 Heckmondwike, A62 Huddersfield to A644 Dewsbury, and A644 Brighouse/M62 to A644 Dewsbury, and vice versa.
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stu531
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Re: Proposed M62 J25/A644 Improvements

Post by stu531 »

Cooper Bridge is pretty awful and as said here, it is a bottleneck. Option A is the only viable one in my book.

Huddersfield suffers from there only being two-and-a-half ways in from the motorways, for a town of its size. Wakefield does far better, for example, and is smaller. In addition, the A629 and A62 ways in are pretty much all single carriageways, so it's not as well connected as it first appears. Option A would go some way to alleviating that.
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Re: Proposed M62 J25/A644 Improvements

Post by lefthandedspanner »

stu531 wrote: Wed Dec 05, 2018 14:23 Cooper Bridge is pretty awful and as said here, it is a bottleneck. Option A is the only viable one in my book.

Huddersfield suffers from there only being two-and-a-half ways in from the motorways, for a town of its size. Wakefield does far better, for example, and is smaller. In addition, the A629 and A62 ways in are pretty much all single carriageways, so it's not as well connected as it first appears. Option A would go some way to alleviating that.
Agreed. Funnily enough the only continuous dual carriageway on the north side of town (Bradford Road) doesn't connect with the motorway at all - a lot of wasted potential there, I think.
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Re: Proposed M62 J25/A644 Improvements

Post by Robert Kilcoyne »

lefthandedspanner wrote: Wed Dec 05, 2018 19:35
stu531 wrote: Wed Dec 05, 2018 14:23 Cooper Bridge is pretty awful and as said here, it is a bottleneck. Option A is the only viable one in my book.

Huddersfield suffers from there only being two-and-a-half ways in from the motorways, for a town of its size. Wakefield does far better, for example, and is smaller. In addition, the A629 and A62 ways in are pretty much all single carriageways, so it's not as well connected as it first appears. Option A would go some way to alleviating that.
Agreed. Funnily enough the only continuous dual carriageway on the north side of town (Bradford Road) doesn't connect with the motorway at all - a lot of wasted potential there, I think.
I think that the steep gradient (by motorway standards) between Junctions 25 and 24 may have been the reason why no junction was built with the A641.
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Re: Proposed M62 J25/A644 Improvements

Post by A320Driver »

AndrewH wrote: Mon Dec 03, 2018 20:45
At the moment traffic stacks back from Cooper Bridge, along the A644 and often up the slip road back onto the M62 at Junction 25 at peak times.

Option A is obviously the best, Option C is quite frankly barmy.
Beautifully displayed by google traffic right now.....

I don't know the area at all. But a one-way link? Which clowns in the local authority dream up such nonsense? This would only be viable if the whole area was made into a giant one-way system.
Formerly ‘guvvaA303’
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FleetlinePhil
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Re: Proposed M62 J25/A644 Improvements

Post by FleetlinePhil »

Robert Kilcoyne wrote: Mon Dec 03, 2018 21:23
AndrewH wrote: Mon Dec 03, 2018 20:45 Option A is obviously the best, Option C is quite frankly barmy.
As I see it, traffic heading from the M62 to eastern Huddersfield would still need to use the existing Cooper Bridge junction if Option C is chosen, so the benefits for traffic heading towards eastern Huddersfield from the M62 would be very limited. And I would have thought that the majority of traffic leaving the westbound M62 at Junction 25 would be heading towards eastern Huddersfield, and not to Dewsbury. (Conversely, the majority of traffic leaving the eastbound M62 at Junction 25 would be heading towards Dewsbury). The Cooper Bridge junction will only be fixed if M62-Huddersfield traffic is removed from the junction altogether i.e. by making the new A62-A644 link road two-way, ideally as dual carriageway, so that the only traffic still using Cooper Bridge would be A62 Huddersfield to A62 Heckmondwike, A62 Huddersfield to A644 Dewsbury, and A644 Brighouse/M62 to A644 Dewsbury, and vice versa.
Unless I'm missing something very obvious, in options A and B M62 to A62 Huddersfield traffic appears to be dumped by the new road onto the A6107 just W of Bradley Bar. It would then have to make a right turn onto the A62, massively increasing what is, I would expect, only a relatively minor flow at Bradley Bar at present. I did wonder if the intention was to send it W on the A6107 then left onto Oak Road to join the A62 nearer Huddersfield, but no, Oak Road appears to be converted to one-way at its junction with the A62 to prevent this. Is this really going to help, or just move the problem to Bradley Bar? If so, option C begins to make a little sense.

The roundabout on the link road also seems a bit odd: presumably it would not be possible to maintain the current access along Lower Quarry Lane, going under (or over) the link road? Or is the roundabout seen as the safe way of turning the corner rather than a long sweeping bend? It seems particularly daft in Option C, where vehicles leaving the landfill would be forced N onto the A644. This may be acceptable for a few lorries, but I doubt it would be popular with the residents if the "proposed Bradley Park housing development" ever went ahead.

And of course there is the enforced junction on versions A and B where link road traffic heading to Bradley Bar has to cross that heading away from it. I fully understand not wanting to have another stream of traffic emerging at the already-busy junction, but is this the best way of avoiding it?

I have rarely needed to use Cooper Bridge, but did use Bradley Bar quite often as the A6107-B6118 proved a useful means of avoiding Huddersfield if heading for the M1 at J38. Personally, I'm not sure any of these schemes seem to help very much in their proposed forms. I am sure, certainly at off-peak times, I would be very likely to continue to use Cooper Bridge rather than the new road in the M62-A62 Huddersfield direction.
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Re: Proposed M62 J25/A644 Improvements

Post by SuperCoolAl »

Two more major problems I see:
  • Only one lane to turn right from Mirfield/Heckmondwike towards the M62.
  • The new junction between Wakefield Road and the new link road has no grade separation, it will get snarled up just as easily as Cooper Bridge does today.
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Re: Proposed M62 J25/A644 Improvements

Post by Jeni »

SuperCoolAl wrote: Thu Dec 06, 2018 23:20
  • The new junction between Wakefield Road and the new link road has no grade separation, it will get snarled up just as easily as Cooper Bridge does today.
Not likely to ever happen
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Re: Proposed M62 J25/A644 Improvements

Post by SuperCoolAl »

The new junction on Wakefield Road might turn out OK without grade separation if they put in freeflow lanes going from the M62 towards Cooper Bridge and going from the link road towards the M62.
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stu531
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Re: Proposed M62 J25/A644 Improvements

Post by stu531 »

Thinking about it more, I think a much better option would be an A641 junction. And not just a roundabout on the awkward hill climb, but a link road French-style toll entry (without the tolls of course).

That way, it would remove the need for a roundabout on the A641/M62 crossing point.

As mentioned by Robert, it would make far more sense. The A62 and A629 entry points are the only two major ways into the town and the A641 would alleviate traffic, coupled with the fact it’s a far better road width-wise than the others. Junction 25 is in entirely the wrong place for Huddersfield, which isn’t great considering it’s the main way in/out to both Leeds and Bradford.

You wouldn’t need to build this link road if you did that; granted a new M62 junction would be far more expensive, but it would have a whole lot more benefit all round.
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Re: Proposed M62 J25/A644 Improvements

Post by stu531 »

stu531 wrote: Wed Dec 12, 2018 08:01 Thinking about it more, I think a much better option would be an A641 junction. And not just a roundabout on the awkward hill climb, but a link road French-style toll entry (without the tolls of course).

That way, it would remove the need for a roundabout on the A641/M62 crossing point. It would even be beneficial if it were to be limited access, with slips facing towards Leeds (to counter balance the A643 junction).

As mentioned by Robert, it would make far more sense. The A62 and A629 entry points are the only two major ways into the town and the A641 would alleviate traffic, coupled with the fact it’s a far better road width-wise than the others. Junction 25 is in entirely the wrong place for Huddersfield, which isn’t great considering it’s the main way in/out to both Leeds and Bradford.

You wouldn’t need to build this link road if you did that; granted a new M62 junction would be far more expensive, but it would have a whole lot more benefit all round.
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Re: Proposed M62 J25/A644 Improvements

Post by Truvelo »

Has work started yet or are the temporary lights for something else? This morning there was an almighty queue on the approach to the lights. This video is speeded up 5x so you can imagine how long the wait actually was. Once past the roadworks there is also a massive queue in the opposite direction. If it's this bad on a Sunday I dread to think what it's going to be like in the rush hour tomorrow.

How would you like your grade separations, Sir?
Big and complex.
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Re: Proposed M62 J25/A644 Improvements

Post by fran_c_is »

FleetlinePhil wrote: Thu Dec 06, 2018 11:59 Unless I'm missing something very obvious, in options A and B M62 to A62 Huddersfield traffic appears to be dumped by the new road onto the A6107 just W of Bradley Bar. It would then have to make a right turn onto the A62, massively increasing what is, I would expect, only a relatively minor flow at Bradley Bar at present. I did wonder if the intention was to send it W on the A6107 then left onto Oak Road to join the A62 nearer Huddersfield, but no, Oak Road appears to be converted to one-way at its junction with the A62 to prevent this. Is this really going to help, or just move the problem to Bradley Bar? If so, option C begins to make a little sense.
My reading of Option A (I haven't yet seen B) is that the M62 to A62 Huddersfield flow would still go via Cooper Bridge Road/Leeds Road (facilitated by converting it from 2 lanes eastbound + 1 westbound to 1EB + 2WB). Also - I think the A62/A6107/B6118 flat junction is just called "Bradley Junction" while "Bradley Bar" is the A6107/A641 roundabout to the west.
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Re: Proposed M62 J25/A644 Improvements

Post by Bryn666 »

stu531 wrote: Wed Dec 12, 2018 08:01 Thinking about it more, I think a much better option would be an A641 junction. And not just a roundabout on the awkward hill climb, but a link road French-style toll entry (without the tolls of course).

That way, it would remove the need for a roundabout on the A641/M62 crossing point.

As mentioned by Robert, it would make far more sense. The A62 and A629 entry points are the only two major ways into the town and the A641 would alleviate traffic, coupled with the fact it’s a far better road width-wise than the others. Junction 25 is in entirely the wrong place for Huddersfield, which isn’t great considering it’s the main way in/out to both Leeds and Bradford.

You wouldn’t need to build this link road if you did that; granted a new M62 junction would be far more expensive, but it would have a whole lot more benefit all round.
Calderdale had people looking at the A641 idea and the works required to build it would have driven it straight into negative BCR. The eventual consideration was for a westbound only offslip (!) but this wasn't seen as desirable and I think HE themselves killed it citing proximity to J25 with the gradient being a killer (you'd need massive Woolley Edge style slips here).

I'd rather the J25 option was explored and suitable improvements made along the A62 which is relatively wide and capable of tweaking.
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Re: Proposed M62 J25/A644 Improvements

Post by FleetlinePhil »

fran_c_is wrote: Mon Feb 25, 2019 14:26
FleetlinePhil wrote: Thu Dec 06, 2018 11:59 Unless I'm missing something very obvious, in options A and B M62 to A62 Huddersfield traffic appears to be dumped by the new road onto the A6107 just W of Bradley Bar. It would then have to make a right turn onto the A62, massively increasing what is, I would expect, only a relatively minor flow at Bradley Bar at present. I did wonder if the intention was to send it W on the A6107 then left onto Oak Road to join the A62 nearer Huddersfield, but no, Oak Road appears to be converted to one-way at its junction with the A62 to prevent this. Is this really going to help, or just move the problem to Bradley Bar? If so, option C begins to make a little sense.
My reading of Option A (I haven't yet seen B) is that the M62 to A62 Huddersfield flow would still go via Cooper Bridge Road/Leeds Road (facilitated by converting it from 2 lanes eastbound + 1 westbound to 1EB + 2WB). Also - I think the A62/A6107/B6118 flat junction is just called "Bradley Junction" while "Bradley Bar" is the A6107/A641 roundabout to the west.
Thanks - I had wrongly assumed for many years that this junction was Bradley Bar until one day I looked at a local bus map which put me right. For some reason I reverted to the wrong name when writing my post.

I assume you would be right about the M62-A62 flow still having to go via Cooper Bridge.
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