Experimental data on the relationship of the residual shear strength of rocks in closed cracks with the functional characteristics of intact rocks – the tensile and compressive components of adhesion, the roughness of the crack surfaces, and the level of normal stresses are presented. A unified integrated approach determines the shear strength of intact and destroyed rocks, the residual shear strength of closed rough cracks has been developed. The approach provides for the selection of stress intervals corresponding to different types of fracture, for each of which a strength criterion is proposed, expressed in terms of functional characteristics of intact rock. An express method for estimating the residual shear strength of rocks by cracks with a rough surface has been developed, in which an improved method of loading samples with spherical indentors is used as a basic test method. The express method implements the transition from the data of mechanical tests of samples with spherical indentors to the shear strength indicators for cracks in the rock mass, taking into account the level of normal stresses and the roughness of the crack surfaces measured in field conditions. In this case the roughness scale developed by Barton is used. The express method is informative and available in the fieldwork.