The long-term deformations and stability of underground evaporite mines are mainly de- termined by the viscous behaviour of the saline rock mass. As tunnels are excavated, deviatoric stresses are induced around the tunnel cross section, leading to the develop- ment of creep strains in the rock. In turn, the creep deformations are associated to a progressive redistribution of stresses, which has the potential of inducing cracking and fracture in the salt rock. Consequently, a tunnel cross-section that is perfectly stable after the excavation may approach failure collapse as time goes by due to the propagation of fractures. Because these creep-fracture interactions have been often neglected, mine engineers have traditionally addressed the creep behaviour and the mechanical strength of the salt rock separately. However, significant tunnel collapses have indicated that this approach may not be on the safe side [1]. With the goal of introducing the fracture mechanics in the stability analysis of excavations in salt rock, this paper presents an attempt to model experimental Mode I fracture tests on salt rock specimens performed at four different loading rates [2]. The experiments showed that the peak force increases and the work required to split the specimen decreases as the loading rate is increased. The model used is implemented in an in-house finite element code (DRAC). Continuum elements are used to represent the bulk salt rock, while the fracture is represented via zero-thickness interface elements pre-inserted along the fracture path. A visco-elastic constitutive law, calibrated with the complementary creep tests, is adopted for the continuum elements. For the interface elements, an elasto- plastic (therefore time-independent) law with fracture work-based softening is used. The simulation results show that the model reproduces the same effects of the loading rate on the peak and softening behaviour, but not in the same magnitude. This seems to indicate that time loading rate dependency should be also considered for fracture process represented by the interface elements.