Property, plant and equipment

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2011

Note 11. Property, plant and equipment

Property, plant and equipment of our insurance and other businesses is comprised of the following (in millions).

	Ranges of estimated useful life	June 30, 2011			December 31, 2010
Land	—	$	760		$	744
Buildings and improvements	3 – 40 years		4,842			4,661
Machinery and equipment	3 – 25 years		11,707			11,573
Furniture, fixtures and other	3 – 20 years		2,061			1,932
Assets held for lease	12 –30 years		5,838			5,832
			25,208			24,742
Accumulated depreciation			(9,563	)		(9,001	)
		$	15,645		$	15,741

Depreciation expense of insurance and other businesses for the first six months of 2011 and 2010 was $791 million and $762 million, respectively.

Property, plant and equipment of our railroad, utilities and energy businesses is comprised of the following (in millions).

	Ranges of estimated useful life	June 30, 2011			December 31, 2010
Railroad:
Land	—	$	5,913		$	5,901
Track structure and other roadway	5 – 100 years		35,952			35,463
Locomotives, freight cars and other equipment	5 – 37 years		4,757			4,329
Construction in progress	—		747			453
Utilities and energy:
Utility generation, distribution and transmission system	5 – 85 years		38,542			37,643
Interstate pipeline assets	3 – 67 years		5,940			5,906
Independent power plants and other assets	3 – 30 years		1,100			1,097
Construction in progress	—		1,769			1,456
			94,720			92,248
Accumulated depreciation			(15,413	)		(14,863	)
		$	79,307		$	77,385

The utility generation, distribution and transmission system and interstate pipeline assets are the regulated assets of public utility and natural gas pipeline subsidiaries. Depreciation expense of the railroad, utilities and energy businesses for the first six months of 2011 was $1,396 million. Depreciation expense for the first six months of 2010 was $1,144 million, which includes depreciation expense of BNSF from February 13, 2010 through June 30, 2010.

- Definition

The entire disclosure for long-lived, physical assets that are used in the normal conduct of business to produce goods and services and not intended for resale. Examples include land, buildings, machinery and equipment, and other types of furniture and equipment including, but not limited to, office equipment, furniture and fixtures, and computer equipment and software. This disclosure may include property plant and equipment accounting policies and methodology, a schedule of property, plant and equipment gross, additions, deletions, transfers and other changes, depreciation, depletion and amortization expense, net, accumulated depreciation, depletion and amortization expense and useful lives, income statement disclosures, assets held for sale and public utility disclosures.

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