A core-ring strain gage (CRSG) test procedure has been devised for measuring the
residual stress in a concrete pavement. Initially cantilevered concrete beams were
selected for instrumentation to determine if beam stresses could be released and measured by drilling a core-ring. The known load induced stresses for a cantilever beam, before a core-ring is drilled, have a theoretical solution. At the same time, the known load induced stresses after a core-ring is drilled can be determined using numerical tools such as ABAQUS program. Other objectives of the beam tests were to determine an appropriate core-ring size, a range of core-ring depths, and the best spacing between the strain gage center and the core-ring edge to be used for future full scale tests. Most load induced strains were released after the core-ring depth reached 30 mm (1.2 inch). Although the comparison between calculated and tested results shows that a "blind-hole" model matches the test results well, the core-ring model still needs further study for more complicated cases. The results of the cantilever beam tests show a high potential for direct measurement of residual stress in concrete pavements for evaluation purposes.