The destroyed covered bridge has been replaced by this steel bailey bridge. (Courtesy the New Brunswick Department of Transportation)

A 19-year-old man is facing arson charges in connection with the covered bridge fire in Cloverdale, N.B., near Hartland, last October.

The historic Adair bridge was burned beyond repair on Oct. 14.

RCMP arrested a suspect on Jan. 6, said Sgt. John de Winter of District 7.

He is scheduled to appear in Woodstock provincial court on March 9.

The investigation is ongoing, said de Winter.

The bridge, which was built in 1948, had been located on Furlong Road, over the north branch of the Becaguimec Stream.

There was no hope of saving the landmark bridge when firefighters arrived at 1:05 a.m., Hartland fire Chief Mike Walton had said. The top of it had already burned off and the floor had sagged to the stream level, he said.

The bridge, which connected motorists and pedestrians to Route 104, has since been replaced by a one-lane steel bailey bridge.

With time and weather being a looming factor, Department of Transportation officials looked to existing inventory for a solution, Minister Denis Landry stated in a news release.

Crews dismantled a modular bridge, which was no longer in service in Hammond River, outside of Saint John, and used some of its components, Landry said.

They also built new bridge abutments, fixed the approaches, and made slope changes to prevent erosion, he said.

The estimated cost to replace the bridge and clean up debris from the fire was $115,000, he added.

New Brunswick now has just 62 covered bridges, compared with more than 400 a century ago. The last covered bridge built in the province was in 1951.