Concrete block pavements (c.b.p.) commonly consist of concrete blocks placed over a granular substructure. As a result of wheel load passages permanent strains will slowly develop in the substructure and cause rutting. This paper is about the prediction of the permanent strain development in the substructure and the associated rutting on the basis of the results of repeated load triaxial tests and analytical models. By discussing the behaviour of three c.b.p.'s it is shown that insight into c.b.p. behaviour is obtained and that the effects of various substructure designs can be evaluated without the construction of real c.b.p.'s.