The assessment of reinforced concrete infrastructure is a growing challenge facing the structural engineering community. Traditional strategies for assigning bridge condition states rely on subjective experience and qualitative methods. There is a demand for more advanced methods that can provide quantitative, objective insight into the implications of measured cracking distress to address the evolving needs of the infrastructure renewal community. Three methods for determining the severity/impact of observed cracking are presented. These three methods represent novel extensions of basic reinforced concrete mechanics theory and provide quantitative output that can assist in infrastructure renewal decision-making processes. Two complementary/accompanying experimental studies are also presented. These experimental studies resulted in the unique testing of previously in-service structures, as well as a substantial contribution to the database of well-documented crack data.