Notwithstanding any other provision of this article or Article 4 (commencing with Section 99260), the Orange County Transportation Commission may allocate funds from either the Orange County Unified Transportation Trust, as defined in Section 99301.6, or from the principal upon which the interest is accruing to the Department of Transportation for construction of high-occupancy vehicle lanes within freeways in the county. In the event high-occupancy vehicle lanes constructed with the funds are subsequently converted to mixed flow use, the local transportation fund shall be reimbursed through the State Transportation Improvement Program process the

amount of funds provided to the department for construction of the lanes pursuant to this section.