The article proposes the method of calculating the bearing capacity of reinforced concrete beams at the operational stage by the rigidity (deflection) criterion. The methods, which were used in the article, are integral test and probabilistic methods for describing random variables. The author offers a new technique of calculating a deflection limit by a criterion of residual deformations. The article exemplifies the usage of the evidence theory for statistical information processing in the form of a set of intervals. Besides, the paper considers variants of concordance between ultimate and operational loads for different design schemes of reinforced concrete beams.