In road engineering the term bearing capacity is somewhat different than in the traditional civil engineering. While we today try to express the bearing capacity for a given road in terms of how many equivalent standard axles this road can take, it is proposed that emphasis is rather put on the service life of the surfacing. For a given axle load this service life may vary considerably depending on the type of surfacing, but with a realistic estimate of what will be a poor/good/very good performance, one may be very close to a different way of expressing the bearing capicity for a given road. An analyses of bearing capacity based of Pavement Management System (PMS) data of the road net work in Akershus County is presented. Based on the assumption that 20% of the reduction in surface condition is proportional to time, and 80% is proportional to the "Equivalent number of 10 tons single axle loads", ESWL, a prognosis of the functional service life of a pavmeent subjected to future traffic has been made. Although the Bearing Capacity Register today, and for several years, will have to be based on deflection data, it is likely that we will soon see a Bearing Capacity Register on a road network based on serviceability data.