Abstract: In order to research influence of the maximum principal stress direction on stability of roadway surrounding rock, taking rectangular haulage roadway of 1101 working face in a mine in Guizhou as engineering background, deformation of roadway surrounding rock was researched when the maximum principal stress was horizontal or vertical stress by use of FLAC3D numerical simulation software. The research results show that when the maximum principal stress is horizontal stress, roof is greatly affected and prone to serious shear failure, and roof displacement is larger than that of two sides, so roof support should be strengthened. When the maximum principal stress is vertical stress, two sides are greatly affected and are prone to shear failure, and displacements of roof and two sides increase obviously with the increase of vertical stress, so two sides support should be strengthened. Based on numerical simulation results and the situation that horizontal stress is greater than vertical stress of the working face, the horizontal stress is approximately regarded as the maximum principal stress, and a supporting scheme was proposed which focused on roof support. The field monitoring results show that displacements of roadway roof and two sides are small after applying the support scheme, which verifies that the support scheme can maintain stability of roadway surrounding rock well.