The consideration on the durability of concrete structures with reinforcement corrosion has become a most urgent problem. A new technique to measure the corrosion of steel in concrete structures was proposed in the present paper. It is based on the microbending characteristic of long period optical grating (LPFG). The temperature spectum character and curvature spectrum character of long period optical fiber grating were studied first. It was shown that the transmission spectrum of long period optical fiber grating shifted right and the transmission of the resonance wavelength was invariable when the temperature increased, while the transmission spectrum of long period optical fiber grating became shallow when the curvature increased, the transmission of the resonance wavelength would increase and it was linear with the curvature. On the basis of the characteristic, a notch shaped pedestal was designed and a long period optical fiber grating was laid on the steel surface. With this method the radial expansion of the steel resulting from the steel corrosion would translate into the curvature of the long period optical fiber grating. The curvature of long period optical fiber grating could be obtained by analyzing the change of spectrum, and then the steel corrosion depth could be measured. This method is simple and immediate and is independent of the variety in temperature, strain and refractive index owing to the inimitable spectrum characteristic of long period optical fiber grating. From the experiment it was found that the precision of the corrosion depth was better than 1.2 microm, and the corrosion depth of 3 mm could be achieved. This measurement could be used to monitor the early to metaphase corrosion of reinforcing steel in concrete structures.