We adopt the concept of generalized plane strain to model a roadway in a stress field.This can avoid limitations caused by simplifying the stress analysis as plane strain.FLAC3D was used to investigate the maximum tensile stress and displacement of a roadway in a known stress field for angles,α,between the roadway axial direction and the maximum principal stress of 0°,30°,45°,60° and 90°.This theory was applied to the analysis of an engineering case.The results indicate that stress and displacement of the surrounding rock increase as the angle,α,increases.This provides some significant guidance for a reasonable layout of roadways in a known stress field.