Think the MacArthur Maze is bad now? Wait until the...

Heads up commuters, Caltrans is planning a major rebuild of the MacArthur Maze that may require parts of the heavily traveled East Bay interchange to be shut down for months, with some traffic rerouted onto surface streets.

“It’s pretty big, probably running a close second to the building of the eastern span of the Bay Bridge,” said Caltrans spokeswoman Chiconda Davis.

Located just off the eastern base of the Bay Bridge, the Maze is a vital hub for some of the Bay Area’s most heavily traveled highways. And it’s already prone to massive backups during commute hours.

At issue are the vertical clearance heights on several of the Maze’s connectors.

Caltrans’ guidelines, adopted way back in the 1960s, call for a vertical clearance on bridges of at least 16 feet, 6 inches. The Maze’s connectors fall 1 to 2 feet short.

Bridges that went up after the ’60s were built to the new standards, but the Maze was built between the 1930s and 1950s.

“The problem with some of the big rigs is that the loads they are carrying are too tall to make it through the Maze,” Caltrans spokesman Bob Haus said. That means they have to go around it, adding to the truckers’ costs and making them burn more fuel, which in turn impacts the environment.

“It wasn’t a real problem until recently. It was only in the last couple of years that the height of the trucks became an issue as they got taller and taller,” he said.

Bringing the bridges into compliance means either raising, lowering, reconstructing or replacing the connectors for:

• Westbound I-80 to Eastbound I-580.

• Westbound I-580 to Westbound I-80.

• Westbound I-80 to Southbound I-880.

• Westbound I-80 to Southbound I-880.

• Eastbound I-80 to Eastbound I-580.

The work is expected to begin in April 2022 and take 10 to 36 months, with estimated intermittent road closures ranging from three months to 15 months.

The estimated cost of the work is from $37 million to $182 million.

“It depends on the alternative that is chosen,” Davis said.

Whatever the final plan, there will be partial or full closures of traffic lanes and in some cases traffic will be diverted onto Oakland and Emeryville streets.

“Our main goal is always safety,” Davis said. “We want to make sure that motorists and freight haulers can travel without damaging the structure or the roadway.”

Other bridges that go over Interstate 880 in Berkeley and Oakland are being upgraded as well.

Caltrans is accepting comments on the environmental report until March 30, so feel free to comment at www.dot.ca.gov/d4/macarthurmazeproject.

Feel free to howl.

Out the door: Embattled Peralta Community College District Chancellor Jowel Laguerre will get the equivalent of 10 months of his $300,000 salary, plus more than a year and a half of family health benefits under the early retirement deal worked out with trustees of the financially troubled district.

Laguerre’s contract was to run until June 2020 but under a deal worked out in closed session, he will burn up four months of unused vacation and sick time, then go on six months paid leave starting in June.

Laguerre’s health benefits will continue until March 2021.

As for how the chancellor managed to rack up four months of unused vacation and sick time after 3½ years on the job? Laguerre was allowed to bring over his unused sick and vacation time from his previous job as superintendent-president of the Solano Community College District.

“It’s pretty much standard practice in education,” district spokesman Spencer Moore said.

Laguerre’s exit follows votes of no-confidence by faculty at two of the district’s colleges and a decision by the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission to fine Peralta $2,000 for spending nearly $39,000 of taxpayer money to mail 392,118 Christmas cards in 2017.

The district, which includes Laney and Merritt colleges in Oakland, Berkeley City College and the College of Alameda, is under enhanced fiscal monitoring because of its poor fiscal management.

District officials consider the exit package a good deal. Laguerre declined to comment.

Laguerre’s successor is Frances White. White has nearly four decades of experience in higher education, including serving as interim president at both Berkeley City College and the College of Alameda. She was also superintendent-president of the Marin Community College District for six years, retiring in 2010.

White’s employment agreement will be considered at the next scheduled board meeting on March 12.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phillip Matier appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX-TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email pmatier@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @philmatier