Fatigue crack growth models based on elastic–plastic stress–strain histories at the crack tip region and strain-life damage models have been proposed. The UniGrow model fits this particular class of fatigue crack propagation models. The residual stresses developed at the crack tip play a central role in these models, since they are used to assess the actual crack driving force, taking into account mean stress and loading sequential effects. The performance of the UniGrow model is assessed based on available experimental constant amplitude crack propagation data, derived for several metallic materials from representative Portuguese bridges. Key issues in fatigue crack growth prediction, using the UniGrow model, are discussed, in particular the residual stress computation