FIXED ASSETS

Fixed assets consisted of the following:



(in thousands)	September 30, 2017			December 31, 2016
Land and land improvements	$	38,209		$	37,835
Buildings and building improvements	192,210			192,874
Machinery, equipment and computer systems	650,850			607,869
Trucks, trailers and automobiles	33,350			32,723
Furniture and fixtures	4,612			4,720
Construction in progress	19,968			22,098
Capital leases⁽¹⁾	2,722			3,303
	941,921			901,422
Accumulated depreciation	(446,090		)	(399,472		)
	495,831			501,950
Fixed assets held for sale	(33		)	(66		)
Fixed assets, net	$	495,798		$	501,884

⁽¹⁾ Gross amounts of assets recorded under capital leases represent machinery, equipment and computer systems as of September 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016.

Depreciation expense related to fixed assets was $17.5 million and $18.5 million during the third quarters of 2017 and 2016, respectively. For the first nine months of 2017 and 2016, depreciation expense was $52.6 million and $52.4 million, respectively.

For the third quarter and first nine months of 2017, we incurred fixed asset impairment charges of $0.5 million and $8.4 million, respectively. Of this, $7.2 million relates to the closure of our Perry, Florida manufacturing facility, as part of our Transformation Plan described in Note 5. The remaining impairment is related to manufacturing assets for which we no longer had a business use. We recognized $0.5 million of fixed asset impairment charges during the third quarter of 2016 related to machinery and equipment no longer in use due to the discontinuation of manufacturing certain products. For the first nine months of 2016, we incurred impairment charges of $1.4 million related to IT equipment and other machinery and equipment related to the discontinuation of manufacturing certain products.