The surrounding rock control is a tough issue in the roadway with the swelling soft rock. The steel set is an important material for the control of swelling soft rock roadways. However, traditional steel sets failed to prevent the expansive pressure of the soft rock. Based on traditional steel sets, this paper developed a new steel set through both theoretical analysis and numerical simulation. The results showed that the new steel set was the set with the roof beam 1000 mm from the top of the set and the floor beam 400 mm from the bottom end of the set. The maximum deformations of the roof-floor and two sides of the ventilation roadway controlled by the best-improved set at the observation point were 147 mm and 108 mm, respectively. So, the best-improved set can effectively control the surrounding rock of the ventilation roadway. This provides an effective method for the surrounding rock control in extremely soft rock roadways.