I'm presuming INDOT faced similar challenges when going from Indy to Evansville? What about the eight highways going out of Indy? When they want a highway, they make it happen.
The plan right now is to restructure intersections to make them safer. Unfortunately, that's a waste of taxpayers money. The growth from Fort Wayne to Merrillville is growing, not shrinking. US 30 becoming an interstate in inevitable. If they don't do it now, it will be much more difficult 20 years from now as Columbia City, Valparaiso, and Warsaw continue to grow. Like everything else outside of Indianapolis, the state seems satisfied with applying a band aid. Hell, no one is even asking for access to the east though Columbus. Give us west to Chicago, eliminate some deaths along the way. No one really seems to care about death unless their family is directly affected.